Jacques Rogge

IOC president Jacques Rogge praised the 3-on-3 basketball format during the final press conference of the Youth Olympic Games. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)

Marina Bay Sands, Thursday, August 26, 2010 — The Youth Olympic Games basketball competition was a highlight for Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who spoke at a press conference this afternoon to assess the success of the inaugural games in Singapore.

When asked what stood out for him, he praised the international federations that had brought in innovative formats.

“In terms of the innovation, I’m pleased with all the federations that innovated … 3-on-3 basketball, mixed relays,” said Rogge, who also mentioned that he watched all 26 sports in Singapore.

When asked why football had such “lousy teams”, in the words of one reporter, Rogge said: “True, in football, we did not have very strong teams. This was the deliberate policy of FIFA. I said to FIFA, ‘we would prefer to have a stronger team next time’ and we agreed to discuss this although I had to say the tournament was a very exciting one. To see Haiti go into the final is heartening.”

According to Rogge, the countries that sent B teams had second thoughts after coming to Singapore.

“There’s a number of countries that have sent not the absolute top athletes, a little lower level, and they all told me that they regretted it,” said Rogge.

“This Youth Olympic Games are definitely exceeding vastly my highest expectations. I knew it will be well organised but with only two and a half years, i did not expect this level of organisation. I now have 22 Olympic Games under my belt, the YOG is up there at the top,” added Rogge.

Rogge was also pleased to note that a lot more countries won medals than in the traditional summer games.

“We’re very pleased about the universality of the Games. 93 NOCs won medals. if you compare to the (summer) Olympic Games, it is 82, 83. We are progressing. The big number of new countries wining medals is very important to us,” said Rogge.

Rogge also shared that a total of 1,900 journalists were accredited for the Games in Singapore and they generated 45,000 articles. He also highlighted that the Games’ YouTube channel garnered 5 million views. The Youth Olympic Facebook page also has over 4 million fans.