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22 OLYMPIC REVIEW BUENOS AIRES 2018 BEGINS WORK ON THE YOUTH OLYMPIC VILLAGEYOG ATHLETES SET FOR RIO 2016More than 200 former Youth Olympic Games (YOG) athletes are set to compete at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, highlighting the important role the YOG play in developing the sports stars of the future. Athletes from both Singapore 2010 and Nanjing 2014 will be aiming to replicate their YOG success in Brazil and follow in the footsteps of YOG graduates who won gold at the Olympic Games London 2012, such as South African swimmer Chad Le Clos and British taekwondo champion Jade Jones.YOG athletes looking to shine on their Olympic debuts include Chinese swimmer Shen Duo, who won four gold medals in the pool at the Nanjing 2014 YOG, Swiss shooter Sarah Hornung, the women’s 10m air rifle champion in Nanjing, and boxer Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan, who won gold in the men’s 69kg event in 2014.Brazilian gymnast Flávia Saraiva (above), who won a gold and two silvers in Nanjing, and her compatriot Hugo Calderano – the men’s table tennis singles bronze medallist in Nanjing and a double gold medallist at the 2015 Pan American Games – will also be eager to delight the home fans.On 6 May, the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (BAYOGOC) held a ceremony to unveil the Youth Olympic Village’s cornerstone. The event marked the start of the construction of the Youth Olympic Village, which will be home to more than 3,800 athletes in October 2018, when the 3rd Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held in Buenos Aires (Argentina).To demonstrate Buenos Aires 2018’s efforts to stage sustainable YOG, the cornerstone was printed using a 3-D printer and material from recycled plastic bottles. This supported the Buenos Aires 2018 environmental campaign for people in the city to bring their plastic bottles to “Green Points” located around the city.“Through this initiative, we are honouring our working principles of innovation and sustainability. We involved the community in every step of the process, making them a key part of the project and promoting respect for the environment,” said Leandro Larrosa, CEO of BAYOGOC.The event began with sports initiation activities involving more than 300 young people from local schools, who had the opportunity to play rugby, hockey and athletics. This was followed by a speech from Argentine Olympic Committee President and IOC Member Gerardo Werthein. The Mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, also made a speech in which he emphasised that the YOG are “one of the most inspiring projects we have nowadays in our city and our country. It combines all the values we want our city to work, grow and develop with”.More than 700 people – including Olympic athletes and authorities from both the national and city governments – attended the official inauguration, which provided an inspiring stepping stone on the road to 2018.Above Local schoolchildren tried a range of sports at the ceremony