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RI youth let down in lead up to Games
As the clock slowly ticks down to August’s opening ceremony of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) admits the country is poorly prepared for the prestigious event, which will be held in neighboring Singapore
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s the clock slowly ticks down to August’s opening ceremony of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) admits the country is poorly prepared for the prestigious event, which will be held in neighboring Singapore.
“Indonesia will be lucky to get 10 athletes to qualify for the Youth Olympics,” program manager at KOI, Gregory J. Wilson, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Wilson, along with Tb Ade Lukman Djayadikusuma of the Cultural and Olympic Education Commission at KOI, is involved in the country’s preparation toward the Youth Olympics.
The Aug. 14-26 event will feature athletes of between 14 and 18 years old from 205 countries competing in 26 sports.
Wilson said that qualifying for the Youth Olympics would be harder than qualifying for the regular Olympics Games.
“Only 3,600 athletes can qualify for the Youth Olympics, while up to 11,000 athletes participate in the Olympic Games. That means our athletes must stand out in the top 10 of various qualifying events for the Youth Olympics,” said Wilson.
Numerous qualifying competitions for the youth games have been held since May 2009 and will run until next May.
At present, Indonesia has only secured one Youth Olympics spot in the men’s weightlifting, while failing to qualify in archery, cycling and sailing. As Indonesia gets two wildcards in swimming, two swimmers also secured spots at the Youth Olympics.
KOI expected that Indonesia would only take part in 11 sports qualifiers (weightlifting, track and field, swimming, badminton, boxing, fencing, tae kwon do, equestrian, wrestling, and volleyball) of
the 26 featured in the Youth Olympics.
Both Wilson and Ade highlighted the lack of interest and awareness among sports associations to
participate in the qualifications for Youth Olympics as one of the main obstacles in preparing for
the event.
“Last year, sports associations were primarily absorbed in the SEA Games, while now they are focusing on the Asian Games and the 2011’s SEA Games. There’s no platform for the development of young athletes,” said Wilson.
Aside from partial financial assistance for weightlifting and archery, when they took part in their qualifiers last year, the government was largely indifferent as well.
Although the Youth Olympics is only 191 days away and qualifiers are currently taking place around the world, the Sports Ministry has not yet disbursed required funds.
“At the end of January, we received [KOI’s] proposed budget, whith more than Rp 4 billion [US$434,782] to fund Youth Olympics qualifiers. The proposal is still under verification,” secretary of the Sports Ministry Wafid Muharam told the Post on Wednesday.
Sports and Youth Minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng stated that he wished to see Indonesia stand among the top 20 nations at the Olympics Games.
“These kids [who will take part in the Youth Olympics] will be the ones representing this country in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. I hope all stakeholders in the country’s sports development start thinking long-term now,” said Wilson.
Meanwhile, aside from the expected allocation from the government, KOI had received a $50,000 Olympic Solidarity fund from the International Olympic Committee last year to cover weightlifting, archery and sailing in their qualifiers.
