Games fosters true sports spirit

The Youth Olympic Games will be devoid of a medals' tally to ease the pressure on the young athletes. The move also suggests that sports authorities have realized that apart from competition and glory, sports is also about promoting a healthy lifestyle and camaraderie, says a commentary in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Athletes taking part in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, are between 14 and 18 years old. Since most of them are too young to cope with the pressure of failure, the authorities have decided to do away with the medals' tally.

Instead of competition and glory, the purpose of the Youth Olympics is to promote a happy and healthy lifestyle and facilitate communication among young people across the globe. During the opening ceremony, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach invited the audience to use their mobile phones to take "selfies" and post them on the Internet - which has become the most popular form of communication among youths - and thus set a light-hearted tone for the games.

To promote more interactions among youths, the games' organizing committee has arranged a series of cultural activities for the athletes. Also, arrangements have been made to allow athletes from various countries and regions to mix and match to compete shoulder to shoulder in 15 team events.

For long, sports has been viewed as a means to earn glory for the country. In the process, we have ignored the other and perhaps more important aspect of sports: promoting a healthy lifestyle. A country that wins the highest number of medals is not necessarily the strongest in sports. Sports is about taking part in games and getting enough physical exercise, which the Youth Olympics organizing committee has recognized and is promoting.