In February 2008, Jacques Rogge (International Olympic Committee President) awarded Singapore the first Youth Olympic Games. From the beginning, USA Today journalist Christine Brennan wrote about the impact of a second set of Olympic Games for youth:

Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2007-03-21-youth-olympics_N.htm 
(Edited for length)

                                  March 23, 2007 USA Today - Over the past few decades in international sports, it has become quite apparent that the last amateurs left in the Olympic world are the people running it.

The other day, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge floated what he probably thought was a very sweet idea. In an interview with the French sports newspaper L'Équipe, Rogge said he would like to launch a Youth Olympic Games for athletes ages 14 to 18, perhaps 3,500 in all, to be held in cities that already have existing venues, starting in 2010. An Olympics for teenagers, you might call it.

If Rogge had given his plan even one more second of consideration, he might have asked himself () questions:

An Olympics for teenagers? Don't we already have that? Isn't it called the Olympics?

Now (for the new Youth Olympic Games) if Rogge wants to put (young athletes) who might be one level removed from prime time (we're probably talking 12- and 13-year-olds), into his Youth Olympics, he should ask another question:

Does the international sports community really want to showcase — we could also use the term exploit — these (youth) at an even earlier age than we currently see them at the Olympics?

Some international sports federations have minimum age requirements for their young athletes. In skating, a competitor needs to turn 15 by July 1 of the previous year to be eligible for the Olympics. In gymnastics, an athlete has to turn 16 in the Olympic year.

The idea behind these rules is to keep these girls down on the farm, in school, for the longest possible time before they are exposed to TV cameras, agents, money — and of course, the alarming risk of injury to bodies that are still developing but being forced to do too much too soon.

Rogge's plan is a recipe for disaster for these young girls. The pressure to perform at the Youth Olympics, which presumably would be televised, would be similar to the pressure at the real Olympics. Agents would be lurking, of course — that is, if the kids weren't signed up already simply because they now were competing in such a big event. The minimum age requirements might as well be tossed out the window. The structure, such as it is, of kids' international sports would be obliterated.

It's possible some sports might benefit from a Youth Olympics with the proper constraints: softball, baseball, soccer and basketball come to mind. Team sports, in other words.

But individual sports, where the pressure already is so great on very young athletes?

The real Olympics is plenty early enough for them.

Boxing is one of the sports to take part in the first Youth Olympic Games. These Games have been instituted by the International Olympic Committee and its first version will be presented in the summer of 2010 in Singapore.

The International Boxing Federation (AIBA) office recently released the requirements for classifications boxers who might participate in these games. Only athletes competing in the 2010 World Championship will be entitled to participate.
This will give an extraordinary importance to the world youth championship, and that all athletes wishing to participate in first youth Olympic Games and be part of history.