Exclusive: Bubka Pushes for Greater YOG Exposure & Extra Disciplines for the Games
July 25, 2013
Sergey Bubka has said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to further promote the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as the Olympic Movement looks to engage young people.
Bubka is the president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and is running to become the next president of the IOC.
One of the greatest challenges the IOC faces is engaging young people and Bubka said the YOG and the addition of extra disciplines in the Summer Olympic Games are crucial.
Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, health Bubka said: “The Olympic program can’t remain static while the world is changing and new sports become popular. I believe that we should keep up with the times and consider the evolution of the Games programme by adding new, arthritis youth-focused disciplines or sports, which can attract new audience to the Games.
“For me the Youth Olympics is the pinnacle of the campaign to involve the younger generation in the sport activities.
“It helps to involve young people in an active and healthy life, engage them at the heart of the Olympic Movement, either as athletes, volunteers, young journalists or fans.”
The addition of extra disciplines at Rio 2016 was rejected by the IOC and Bubka, who broke the world record for men’s pole-vaulting 35 times in his career, said they need to be considered in the future.
Dynamic disciplines an option
One of the disciplines to be rejected was 3×3 basketball, a discipline used in the 2010 YOG in Singapore.
Bubka commented: “I believe that 3×3 basketball is exciting and dynamic and could well be an option for future inclusion.
“However, it is important to maintain the scale and budget of the Olympics within existing boundaries following the standard of the Games’ participants around 10,500.”
The YOG were created by current IOC president Jacques Rogge and the first installment was in Singapore.
Buenos Aires was recently awarded the 2018 version of the tournament, beating Glasgow and Medellin.
Bubka is currently campaigning to replace Rogge as the next president of the IOC and faces competition from Thomas Bach, Richard Carrion, Ser Mian Ng, Denis Oswald and Ching-Kuo Wu.
The new president will be elected in September at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires.
