Buenos Aires Claims 2018 "Most Important" YOG

6/26/2013

Buenos Aires has bid for multiple summer Olympic Games. (Getty Images)

(ATR) The CEO of the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games bid says the third edition of the YOG will be the event’s “most important”—and the Argentinean capital is best poised to host it. 

Speaking to Around the Rings, Francisco Irarrazaval said the Games will be the first Summer Games that will take place almost entirely without the assistance of IOC President Jacques Rogge and Irrazaval said it will be critical to define the Games for the new president. The YOG was the brainchild of the outgoing IOC President. 

In an interview before the July 4 IOC vote, Irarrazaval said: “we can be good interpreters of what the YOG is about.”
He added that the bid is confident Buenos Aires is ready. 

“We feel really fit,” he said, noting the bid has highlighted the city’s improvement in public infrastructure and sporting prowess. 

“We think this may be our time. We think that we are ready because a lot has happened here.” 
 

Francisco Irarrazaval. (ATR/Panasonic Lumix)

Technology in 2018 will also cause a massive change for the YOG, and Irarrazaval said his city is capable of adapting to the change. 

“This will be about the age, about the velocity that different ways of technology are going,” he said. 

Irarrazaval said the bid’s presentation to IOC members will show “what the athletes will get, what the kids in the city will get, what the youth will get and what the IOC will get.” 

Earlier this month, the IOC Evaluation Commission released its report of the three bid cities, Buenos Aires, Glasow and Medellin. The report had the strongest concern for Buenos Aires, mainly in its lack of government guarantees. Soon afterwards, Buenos Aires was able to secure government funding guarantees, and Irarrazaval says the city is on a level playing field again. 

“We’ve done all that’s been requested and we feel really safe and comfortable. It’s not about money for us,” he added. 

“The budget of the YOG is nothing compared to the general budget of the city.
 

The Recoleta Cultural Centre, a Culture and Education Program venue and host of the Emerging City festival. (Getty Images)

“Everything is fine here.”

One event the bid chose to promote is the "Emerging City" festival which took place over four days at the city's Recoleta Cultural Centre, one of the sites for the Culture and Education Program for the YOG. This year's event saw a record 350,000-person attendance for the youth-oriented festival. 

Buenos Aires says the YOGOC budget would total $104.69 million and the non-YOGOC budget would be $126.4 million. A total of 26 venues are proposed with 22 existing. Venues are located in two city center zones: “The Green Corridor” and “Roca Park.” Ninety-six percent of venues are within 35km and 30 minutes of the Youth Olympic Village. 

If Buenos Aires 2018 and Irarrazavl feel confident ahead of the vote, he declined to make a prediction on the race, saying there are so many ongoing campaigns within the IOC, it is difficult to gauge member’s sentiments. 

“I hope and we worked really hard, we are going into the Olympic Movement, we have the torch here, we are going in steps and becoming a really Olympic country,” he said listing all the upcoming events in Buenos Aires, including the IOC Session in September. 

“We are a small country but a very open country. [Buenos Aires is an] incredible mixture of a city ready to welcome the world and a city that has sports in its DNA so we are prepared.” 

Written by Ed Hula III.