Olympian effort
Record medal haul for Argentina as hugely successful Youth Olympic Games draw to a close
With all the economic and social upheaval currently lashing Argentina, to all intents and purposes the past month appeared a singularly unfortunate time to hold a festival of world sport. But the 2018 Youth Olympic Games has brought a smile to the face of Buenos Aires of late, as thousands of budding sporting hopefuls came together for two weeks of thrilling action across the capital.
“Feel the future,” was Buenos Aires’ motto for the Games, and that sentiment was echoed throughout. October 12’s opening ceremony set the tone from the off: instead of the confined reaches of one of the Olympic stadiums, the decision was made to take the Games to the very heart of the city, the iconic Obelisk monument, with an estimated 200,000 people making their way downtown to take in a night-time spectacle led by Argentina’s famous performance artists Fuerza Bruta.
“We wanted to do something different and we had the idea of making a participative, inclusive ceremony,” President of the Argentine Olympic Committee Gerardo Werthein explained. “We decided the ceremony should be in the street, with a 360° concept and that it should be a ceremony in which both athletes and the people were participants and the creators of Argentina’s success.”
That spirit of inclusion, a staple of the Olympic ethos, continued throughout the games. As well as the more traditional disciplines, sports such as beach handball, futsal and sport climbing were included for the first time.
In all, close to a million spectators flocked through the gates of the Olympic Park and other venues to watch competitors aged between 15 and 18 face each other, who were housed in the Olympic Village, located in the neighbourhood of Villa Soldati, that after the Games will be converted into affordable housing for residents of one of Buenos Aires’ most impoverished zones.
It was a massive organisational task, even more so given recent troubles with the devalued Argentine peso, but those in charge proved themselves more than equal to the challenge.