Glasgow Misses Out On Youth Olympic Games

Glasgow has missed out on the chance to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games after Buenos Aires was selected ahead of Colombia’s Medellin in an International Olympic Committee vote on Thursday.

Glasgow was eliminated in the first round of voting and the Argentine capital, who has failed with bids four times for the senior Olympic Games in the past, won 49 votes to Medellin’s 39 in the second round. 

Gerardo Werthein, president of the Argentine Olympic Committee, told reporters: ‘We won on our experience in staging major sporting events and the compactness of the venues.’

‘We have bid four times for an Olympics, this event is tailor-made for our country, for our possibilities.’

Despite previous rejections for the full Games, the choice of Buenos Aires appeared to break with an unwritten principle that the youth games should be staged in cities which are too small to have any hope of staging the senior Olympics.

In response to the verdict, Lord Smith of Kelvin, chairman of Glasgow 2014, said in a statement: ‘Our warm congratulations go to Buenos Aires for their success in securing the Bid to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.’

‘Glasgow is without doubt one of the world’s great sporting cities and I must credit the Glasgow 2018 Bid Team for their hard work and commitment in delivering this message positively.’

‘It must be remembered that Scotland and Glasgow already have much to be proud of as welcoming hosts for great sporting occasions. I am confident the skills and knowledge developed in delivering an outstanding Commonwealth Games next year will play a key role, not just in inspiring the young people of Scotland through the power of sport, but also in supporting our future ambitions to host great global events.’

Medellin, home to the notorious Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s, had been hoping to be awarded the games as recognition of its recent transformation.

The Youth Olympic Games were first held in Singapore in 2010 and the next edition will be hosted in Nanjing, China, next year.

Glasgow have now turned their attention back to hosting the Commonwealth Games next year, and today announced a new television deal to expand the global reach of the competition.

Glasgow 2014 announced the appointment of the Asia Broadcasting Union as its latest Broadcast Rights Holder.

As well as providing free-to-air coverage to the Commonwealth nations of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius, ABU will showcase the Games to territories outside of the Commonwealth further broadening the opportunity to savour the world-class sporting action.

Such non-Commonwealth territories include Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Timo Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.