Sunday, August 15, 2010

First Youth Olympics begins in Singapore

Fifty-seven New Zealanders between the ages of 14 and 18 are currently in Singapore to compete in the inaugural Youth Olympics. The Games were the brainchild of International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who was on hand to welcome the 3600 young athletes at the Opening Ceremony yesterday. Surprisingly, the NZ media has not considered this event to be particularly newsworthy - I scoured the papers and Stuff.co.nz today, looking for some mention of it. Only two articles, both released by the NZPA, have been posted so far. I would have thought individual stories of the bright young Kiwi hopefuls would have been journalistic gold, especially for regional newspapers to trumpet their local athletes.

After Day One's events, our best result has been 16-year-old Maddie Dillion's eighth-place finish in the junior women's triathlon. Of the race, she says “It was pretty overwhelming and pretty scary but it was a really great experience and one that I will cherish forever. It’s kind of made history in my life."

Emerging from the swim in 24th place, Maddie Dillon had to "work [her] bum off" to finish eighth in the women's triathlon.

No comments:

Post a Comment