38 sport

thesundaytimes June 28, 2009 ●

No kidding,
the AYG are
more than
just games
S’pore’s teens won’t
be just making friends
and playing hosts but
also competing to win
Rohit Brijnath
Don’t make a mistake. Don't look
at these 14-year-olds, fighting pim-
ples, braces glinting with every shy
crooked smile, and think, oh,
they’re just kids. They’re also ath-
letes, they’re at the AYG not just to
make friends and play generous
host. They’re also here to compete.
Sport, once played in the sand-
pit, is still fun but with an edge. Or
as Singapore’s bowling coach
Mervin Foo says: “Having fun is
when you win.”
Don’t tiptoe around this na-
tion’s youngsters. By the time you
It’s what kids train for, it’s what
coaches like swimming’s David
Lim will be looking for. Some kids
have a natural affinity for the con-
test; others, he says, “train well but
don’t compete well”. Not every con-
testant will pursue a life in sport,
but some will crave excellence and
we shouldn’t snuff it out.
Not giving these athletes med-
als, as was contemplated, would
have been counter-productive. You
can’t produce adult champions if
the first lesson you’re handing out
to kids is that winning doesn’t mat-
ter. Says football coach David Sival-
ingam: “We’re trying to get into
the top four and there are very
good teams here. You must have a
winning mentality.”
Pressure has become another
swear word, uttered usually by offi-
cials who want to cotton-wool ath-
letes. But all athletes wear pressure,
even amateurs on weekends when
hunched over a four-foot putt, and
it’s part of the pleasure of sport.
When Maria Sharapova got to
the 2008 Australian Open final, ten-
nis legend Billie Jean King sent her
a text that read “pressure is a privi-
lege”. As if to say, to be in that posi-
tion to feel pressure means you’re
privileged.
The AYG teens are some dis-
tance from Sharapova’s world, but
they’re representing their nations
in a regional tussle that has its own
tensions. It is to be dealt with, not ST PHOTOS: ALBERT SIM.
shied from.
S. Korean footballers Kim Sun Bin (top, left) and Choi Jae Hun at an Xbox 360 games console, while their teammates help themselves to a buffet or play foosball.
No Singapore coach I met boast-
fully predicted medal numbers.

JUNE 29-JULY 7
Winning matters
Not giving these
athletes medals, as was
contemplated, would
have been
counter-productive. You
can’t produce adult
champions if the first
lesson you’re handing
out to kids is that
winning doesn’t matter.
sip your morning tea, they’ve done
miles in the water and befriended
pain. They are not professional ath-
letes, this isn’t their livelihood, but
neither is this some community,
do-it-for-charity carnival.
The AYG are perfect for teens, a
professional Games in amateur
miniature. It is that scary, thrilling
moment of transition when neigh-
bourhood hot-shot becomes un-
known competitor trying to take
on his continent.
Says chef de mission Lee Wung
Yew: “It’s good to expose these kids
to a minor form of a major Games.”
The word Games is key: if we want
a hand-holding cultural exchange,
we should hold a youth camp; if
you call it a Games it means compe-
tition with something at stake.
Proportion is required here. No
one wants ranting fathers courtside
or overbearing coaches. But com-
peting hard is a thrill, it’s reward-
ing, it’s revealing, it brings out, says
Foo, “an inner fortitude”.
Hype they don’t care for, but a little
pressure they’re fine with. “We wel-
come it,” said sailing’s Mark Plum-
mer. Foo even prepared his team
for it, simulating conditions in prac-
tice and making his bowlers com-
pete against superior players.
Coaches see the AYG as an expe-
rience, a testing ground, even a
dress rehearsal for next year’s
Youth Olympic Games.
So Sivalingam is looking for “dis-
cipline and commitment”. Plum-
mer will keep an eye on how his
sailors react to media coverage and
life at a big Games. Lim says his
swimmers usually swim away from
these shores, yet this home meet
will provide “a good learning curve
for there will will be a bit more pres-
sure”.
But no experience is worth-
while, no learning achieved, unless
the activity is conducted with a cer-
tain intensity.
No one wants grim, scowling ro-
bots at 14. No one wants a teenager
to confuse losing with failure. No
one wants to define them at 14, for
as Xu Xiangdong, table tennis’
youth coach, says: “You can’t be
too judgmental at this early stage
because their bodies are still grow-
ing and their games are still improv-
ing.”
But surely no one, especially pay-
ing spectators, wants to see a hit
and giggle Games. Indeed, to want
anything less than hard, fair con-
tests would be to disrespect Singa-
pore’s tough teens. As two bowlers
sternly replied, when asked if their
mission was limited to fun: “We
play to win.”
rohitb@sph.com.sg
Games Village hotel wins praise
Cassandra Lim
Christopher Ong
The occasion was the 100 metres fi-
nal of the 2008 Beijing Olympics –
and dashing for the tape neck and
neck were South Koreans Choi Jae
Hun and Kim Sun Bin.
As they neared the finish line,
Choi pulled ahead with one
lung-bursting surge to win narrow-
ly. The room burst into cheers and
laughter.
Huh?
Actually, the race took place on
Friday at the Athletes’ Lounge of
Swissotel The Stamford, the official
Games Village of the Asian Youth
Games (AYG), and it was simulated
by the Korean duo on the Xbox
360 games console.
In real life, Choi and Kim are
members of the South Korean foot-
ball team.
While they were busy with the
Xbox, their teammates were just as
preoccupied at the foosball table,
Internet stations and Nintendo Wi-
is.
The Athletes’ Lounge is to help
the young athletes at the AYG relax
away from the playing fields.
Said Choi, 14, of the red carpet
treatment: “It’s a great honour to
be housed here. In our age-group,
it’s rare that we’re housed in such a
good hotel when competing.
“It’s as good as being treated as
professionals or members of senior
teams.”
The Swissotel will play host to
approximately 1,400 athletes, aged
between 14 and 17, and officials for
the Games, which start tomorrow.
They will occupy about 600
rooms, spread out over 30 floors at
the 73-storey, 1, 261-room hotel.
Laos football team manager
Alex Tuan Tran said his players are
excited about the accommodation.
“This is the first time they are
staying in a five-star hotel, so they
are very excited,” he said.
The athletes are housed three to
a room, which has its minibar
items removed so the young ath-
letes will not have access to alcohol-
ic beverages. They can use the mini-
bar to chill their own beverages
such as isotonic drinks.
As for meals, they are treated to
lavish buffet spreads at three din-
ing places – Kopi Tiam, Plaza Mar-
ket Cafe and Cafe Swiss. They offer
international and Asian cuisine,
with western, local and vegetarian
options.
The chefs also cater to special re-
quests. For instance, the Laos foot-
ballers want cut chillies for every
meal as they miss the spicy food
back home.
To ensure that no athlete goes
hungry, there are 24-hour recovery
bars which stock an impressive ar-
ray of fruit, bread and muffins
among others. The various spreads
of food also help the athletes get
proper post-workout nutrition.
Security, too, has been stepped
up at the hotel.
So is there any downside to the
Swissotel? Maybe.
Timur Nishanbaev, Uzbekistan’s
chef de mission, feels that a top ho-
tel may not be the best place to
house athletes, who need to con-
ST PHOTOS: CHEW SENG KIM centrate.
Singapore’s footballers (top) feel right at home in their hotel room while “Also, there are many tourists
others (above) admire the city view. here,” he said.

Fairmont to sponsor YOG

Fairmont Singapore has been ap-
pointed the official hotel partner
for the first Youth Olympic Games,
continuing its tradition of support-
ing local sport.
The sponsorship in kind will see
most of the hotel’s 769 rooms set
aside from Aug 14-26 next year for
government officials, members of
the Olympic family and interna-
tional sports federations, plus for-
eign media.
Fairmont is also where members
of the Olympic Council of Asia and
other distinguished guests will be
staying during the first Asian Youth
Games, which starts tomorrow and
ends on July 7.
“The AYG and YOG are a paral-
lel course,” said Ian Wilson, Fair-
mont Singapore’s general manager.
“We feel it is important to play a
supporting role in the communi-
ties in which we live.”
The hotel was also involved in
the 117th International Olympic
Committee Session in July 2005, a
week-long event which saw more
than 6,500 officials, delegates and
sports celebrities like David Beck-
ham witness London win the bid to
host the 2012 Olympic Games.
The YOG partnership was an-
nounced on Friday, in a ceremony
attended by Fairmont Hotels and
Resorts president Tom Storey and
Senior Parliamentary Secretary
(Community Development, Youth ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM
and Sports) Teo Ser Luck. (From left) Mr Teo Ser Luck (Sr Parlimentary Secretary,
Mr Teo said YOG organisers are Ministry of Community Development, Youth and
on track to surpass their sponsor- Sports), Ian Wilson (general manager of Fairmont
Singapore), Tom Storey (president, Fairmont Hotels &
ship target of $50 million in cash Resorts) and Goh Kee Nguan (CEO of YOG Organising
and kind. More partners will be an- Committee) at the launch of Fairmont as the official
nounced soon. hotel partner for YOG 2010.