Horse Illustrated Magazine

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has announced that Singapore will be the host city of the first Youth Olympic Games to take place in 2010. The Games will bring together talented athletes — ages 14 to 18 — from around the world to participate in high-level competitions.

The first Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore will open on Aug. 14, 2010, and will bring together approximately 3,200 athletes and 800 officials. The Games will encompass all the sports on the program of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, but with a limited number of disciplines and events.

Where equestrian sport is concerned, only jumping competitions on borrowed horses are currently scheduled. The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the governing body of international equestrian sport, is currently working on the qualification criteria with the IOC; the criteria will be made available as soon as established.

To date, it is unknown whether the United States will be sending an equestrian team to the Youth Games.
In addition to competition, the Youth Games will also include educational programs on the Olympic values, the benefits of sport for a healthy lifestyle, the social values sport can deliver and the dangers of doping and of training to excess and/or of inactivity.