page_title: 2010 Summer Youth Olympics
section_title: Opening ceremony
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 Summer Youth Olympics / Opening ceremony
caption_attribution_description: Opening Ceremony of Singapore YOG 2010
context_page_description: The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games, an international multi-sport and cultural event for youths based on the tradition of the Olympic Games. Held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, it was the first International Olympic Committee-sanctioned event held in Southeast Asia. The Games featured about 3,600 athletes aged 14–18 from 204 nations, who competed in 201 events in 26 sports. No official medal tables were published, but the most successful nation was China, followed by Russia; hosts Singapore did not win any gold medals. Most unique features of the YOG, such as mixed-NOCs teams and the Culture and Education Programme, made their debut at the 2010 Games.
  Although the concept dates back to 1998, formal plans for the YOG were only first announced at the 119th IOC session on 6 July 2007. On 21 February 2008, Singapore was selected as the host city after defeating Moscow 53–44 in a postal vote by 105 International Olympic Committee members. The Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee prepared eighteen competition venues and twelve training venues.
context_section_description: The opening ceremony of the Games was held on 14 August at The Float@Marina Bay, a floating stage near downtown Singapore. Approximately 27,000 spectators attended the event, which took place against a backdrop of the city's skyline. Event tickets cost between S$30 and S$200. The show, the largest ever held by the city, involved over 750 hours of rehearsals. Over 7,000 performers, mostly under the age of 18, took part in the ceremony. At the centre of the stage was the 32-metre (35 yd) tall Olympic cauldron designed by Randy Chan as a lighthouse. It was flanked by six giant LED displays, which stood behind a reflecting pool containing 200 t (7,100,000 oz) of water. Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong was present at the event.
  Following pre-show warm-up and a countdown led by children and young drummers, the show began proper at 20:10 hrs (UTC+8)—a reference to the year of the event—with a fireworks show, followed by a cultural segment titled "Selamat Datang" that featured Chinese, Malay and Indian performers. The segment ended with performances by homegrown artistes of Eurasian and Peranakan heritage, symbolising the mixture of tradition and modernity in Singapore. Audience members were greeted with pre-recorded messages from several Olympic ambassadors: Olympians Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Yelena Isinbayeva, members of the band Thirty Seconds to Mars, and actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The flag of Singapore entered the stage with the Deyi Military Band, who had won the Display Band of the Year Award and Best Drum Major of the Year Award in the Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging Display Band Competition 2010, performing "Five Stars Arising", and the national anthem while the flag was raised.
  During the "Origins" segment on the city's history, performers entered the stage in freight containers to depict the arrival of the earliest immigrants. The ceremony continued with a dance performance featuring popular songs from the 1940s to the present era. A segment entitled "Monster" told the story of a young boxer who had to fight a giant monster. He summons his Silat warriors to fight against the monster, but they failed, as well as when he summons his Kalari warriors and Wushu warriors. But soon he overcomes his inner fears and defeats the giant monster. Singer Seah Wei Wen then performed "Across The Finish Line" composed by Mayuni Omar & Mathilda D Silva, in the centre of the reflecting pool. It was followed by "Playing with Fire", which featured the dragon as a symbol of courage, strength and wisdom. In this segment, 500 youth from Singapore Soka Association participate to form from many fishes into a dragon. Reflecting the theme of global co-operation, members of the World Youth Orchestra of the Singapore Games performed an orchestral piece featuring various instruments from around the world. The orchestra was led by Darrell Ang, the young associate conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The following segment, titled "Bud", depicted rain as a symbol of hope and rejuvenation. Ending the show segment of the ceremony were singers Marcus Lee of Ex-Dee and Lian Kim Selby, performing the song "A New Story", which was commissioned for the event. Their performance was accompanied by a fashion show organized by students from LASALLE College of the Arts.
  Each flag of the National Olympic Committees represented was brought on stage by an athlete representative. Following Olympic tradition, the flag of Greece entered first as the originator of the games, and the flag of Singapore entered last as the host nation. The flag ceremony was followed by the singing of the Games theme song and remarks by Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee, and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee. The Singapore Games were then officially declared opened by S.R. Nathan, the President of Singapore. The Olympic flag was brought on stage by eight Olympians—Tan Howe Liang, Yelena Isinbayeva, Yang Yang, Tan Eng Liang, Frankie Fredericks, Patricia Chan, Tao Li and Sergey
caption: One of the segments of the opening ceremony
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-LX3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2010:08:14 20:12:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "634", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "10740", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8341", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:08:14 20:12:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:08:14 20:12:59", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "51/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "10276", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}