Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Flame

At the start of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games and even in the days that ran up to it, I didn’t really pay much attention to it. It took it as the normal hype that comes with events. It would not be the first time I would have attended some event due to the rather effective hype surrounding the events. However, after avoiding the Singaore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, I did manage to watch the men’s and women’s finals in gymnastics and that probably triggered my interest in the whole event.

The next night after the finals, I headed to the bay area where the floating platform was. This was where the opening ceremonies was held. I regretted not having watched it, but it is still here, at least I still have a chance to see an Olympic flame. The Olympic flame is constantly lit during the entire games period and is only estinguished when the games end. Unfortunately, for me the Olympic flame was out of reach as the entire area was cordoned off probably due to some practice session for the closing ceremonies. It is also for safety that the flame is beyond reach since it was quite a big flame.

The flame is sitting on top of a structure that looks like a lighthouse. The flame itself is shaped into a cylindrical shape with smaller flames surrounding it. The Olympic flames stands proud at the Singapore river greeting all who pass by. To see the flame properly, I needed to go around the entire grandstand area and to the bridge connecting to the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. There was an opening in the bridge area that led to a viewing area of the floating platform and the central business district. Expectedly, there were a lot of tourists taking a photo of the Olympic flame. I can’t blame them, you don’t get to lay your eyes on an Olympic flame very often.

Looking back at the games, I was impressed with the effective hosting of the game by Singapore. Although there were issue with tickets being hard to get. These were addressed by the goverment and accomodated to the best of their ability. Although huge amounts of resources were poured into making the games a success, I believe it was all very well worth it.

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