Filipe_Golias

The U-21 European Football Championship has already served as the continental Olympic qualifying tournament back in 2004. That time, only the top 3 teams would qualify (Italy, Serbia-Montenegro and Portugal). This time, it's the top 4 (or semifinalists) that can get to Beijing, as UEFA got a 4th berth at the expense of Africa.

Prior to 1994, did the same situation happen to the WOG? Was it the reason for the transition? If it was, then I agree the YOG should be on odd years.

Rogge said the YOG won't be "mini-Olympic Games" but it sure will seem so: the Olympic protocol will be followed, only Olympic sports/disciplines will be contested, and there will even be an Olympic village. He also hinted that there were already many bidders (that could include Lisbon afterall - I wonder...) NBC: IOC to introduce Youth Olympic Games

Besides, Lisbon has already hosted the also Rogge-inspired EYOF, back in 1997 (!) with about 2,500 athletes + officials, so 10 years later, we're perfectly able to welcome +3,000 competitors. Yes, it would be nice to have smaller countries feeling proud of hosting an official IOC event.

For now, these "Youth Olympics" are nothing more than an idea still to be sanctioned/dropped by the IOC. That's why I was bit 'shocked' when I read this on the site of a national sports diary (translated from Portuguese): Link There's no source, not even the article's author name. I'm gonna search for more info to validate this strange news.

Yeah, I've found the details but I didn't took a good look at them, it was too late anyways. The technical/combustion engineering part is what deviates me from actually submitting a proposal in the future. I'm more into design... Oh, and that "idea borrowing" isn't surprising... at all In the end, China (the Central Committee, more specifically) need to display all the credits, even those that are not they own.

Man! What a terrific video (in the line of the others...)

You submitted a design? How cool Was the process complex, too demanding? I would consider participating in similar contests for future Olympics...

I agree such competition would suffer much from lack of interest and promotion, unless the IOC really puts an effort to avoid this.

Yeah, the torch is nice... simple but original, with that scroll design. And the gray in between the cloud pattern softens the red color which almost covers the whole torch. The relay is a bit unbalanced, mostly because of the massive route inside China, which practically leaves many truly Olympic world cities outside. I mean, I was wondering why cities like Dar-es-Salam, San Francisco, Almaty and St. Petersburg where chosen. The first two were already explained but what was the reason for the others?

In an universe of 85 million people, I believe there are more than 50,000 construction workers

Meanwhile and on the other hand, they are busy with more important things like: