YOG 2010: Rogge admits he's as nervous as an expectant father

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Singapore

JACQUES Rogge - a doctor by trade - has been in plenty of delivery rooms but he admits he has never been as nervous as he prepares for the birth of the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

NERVOUS: Jacques Rogge symbolically shovels soil during a Youth Olympic Games tree dedication ceremony at Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade in Singapore (Singapore Press Holdings)

Rogge hopes a successful Youth Olympic Games project will be his legacy to the Olympic Movement as he enters the tenth year of his presidency.

He was the vision behind the successful European Youth Olympic Festival, staged last year in Tampere, Finland, during his time as the head of the European Olympic Committees.

However, the first ever Youth Olympic Games - or YOG as the IOC prefer them to be labelled - represents a major investment for the International Olympic Committee and Rogge knows his tenure as president may well be defined by their success or failure.

Already he has had to deflect criticism of cost over-runs, with the initial £19 million ($30m) now swelled to  £184m ($287m), while ticket sales in Singapore have reportedly been sluggish.

"I feel like a father waiting in the delivery room for the birth to happen, yes of course I am nervous.  I am optimistic but I still want to see the baby being born," said Rogge.

I feel like a father waiting in the delivery room for the birth to happen, yes of course I am nervous.  I am optimistic but I still want to see the baby being born." International Olympic Committee president Dr Jacques Rogge

"It's an ambitious project and we approach it with the necessary humility.  We are going to watch the event very closely and monitor that.  

"We will probably make mistakes here and there but we'll learn from them and improve for the next edition and I am very optimistic that this is going to be the start of a long successful series."

A congested sporting calendar is another concern. Great Britain have sent a team of 40 to the Games - sixty less than they could have selected - emphasising a quality over quantity approach that will be spread across 15 of the 26 sports.

Most national sports federations are adopting a slowly, slowly policy of embracing YOG, preferring to focus their best athletes on established junior competitions and international federations, while broadly supportive, are also reticent to make too many changes to the status quo.

British Swimming sent their best teenage athletes to the recent European Junior Championships in Helsinki while UK Athletics made no secret they prioritised last month's IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton.

World champion diver Tom Daley is the star name of the British team in Singapore but other rising star British teens - including sprinter Jodie Williams, swimmer Achieng Ajulu-Bushell and tennis player Laura Robson - are all absent after focussing on other priorities.

"We have been careful with the international federations to protect the physical, psychological and mental health of the young athletes," said Rogge.

"The competition times are adapted and the length of the competition in many events is adapted to the potential of the young athletes.  I am confident that they will not be overloaded."

RELATED:  JAMES TONEY: Youth Olympics needs time to earn its sporting status

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