With a ceremony held at Marina Bay, Singapore, the first edition of the Youth Olympic Games ended this Thursday 26th. For 12 days, 3,600 youngsters from 205 countries and with ages ranging from 14 to 18 years took part in the event that united high performance sports competition, cultural activities and, most of all, gave the young athletes the chance of intensively living the Olympic atmosphere. The Brazil Team, represented by 81 athletes in 20 sports modalities, leaves Singapore with seven medals, being three Gold medals, three Silver medals and one Bronze medal. Brazil took part in 33 Olympic finals, being 15 male and 18 female, in 14 modalities. Considering that 60% of the athletes of the Brazilian delegation participated in the finals, the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) evaluation is that the 2016 generation passed its first big test with honors. The international Olympic Committee (IOC) celebrated the competition audience among the young people, mostly through the internet. From the 3, 6 million fans that accessed information on the Games via Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, more than half is between 13 and 24 years old. “The concept the IOC implemented for this competition was completely different from the traditional format of the Olympic Games, so different that a table of medals was not established for the event. The most important thing was to provide the athletes the opportunity to live their first Olympic Games experience and stimulate youngsters to practice sports and live healthily, away from drugs and doping. It’s important that everyone understands the scope of this competition. It is a new dimension for the future of the Olympic Games”, considers Rio 2016 Committee and BOC president, Carlos Arthur Nuzman. The BOC objective in the Youth Olympic Games followed the concept established by the International Olympic Committee for the event: provide the experience of an Olympic competition to young athletes in varied modalities, as a stimulus to their technical development. The IOC established a limit of 70 athletes of different individual modalities for each country, besides two vacancies in collective sports, one male and another female, as long as the country would reach classification. “The Youth Olympic Games came at a very special moment for Brazilian sport. We had the opportunity of giving international experience to these young athletes that, because of their age, have great chances of competing at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The fact that Brazil classified 81 athletes in 20 modalities, through international selective, demonstrates the quality of the base work accomplished by the Olympic Brazilian Confederations, with the support from the BOC, and the commitment of investing in the development of all Olympic modalities”, stated Marcus Vinicius Freire, BOC sports executive superintendent Besides the 26 sports modalities being competed, the Youth Olympic Games presented an extensive cultural and educational program, which introduced in a playful way the young athletes in Olympism and the Olympic values, apart from the sensitization for important matters, such as the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the fight against doping. According to the IOC, the Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010 had also the participation of 1,850 officials and 20 thousand volunteers. From the 205 participating countries, 93 won medals. The Games had the broadcasting from 160 TV companies and 1,900 accredited journalists The next Youth Olympic Games will be held in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012, which will host the winter competitions. The second edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Nanjing, China. Check out the medals Brazil won at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games: Gold: David Lourenço (boxing), Caio Cezar Fernandes, Long Jump (athletics); Caio Cezar Fernandes (athletics). Silver: Felipe Wu (shooting), Thiago Bráz, Pole Vault (athletics) and Flávia Gomes (judo) Bronze: female Handball