Coe backs Glasgow 2018 Youth Olympics bid

Sebastian Coe, the man behind London's 2012 Olympic bid, wants to see Glasgow succeed with its attempt to stage the 2018 Youth Olympics and so add another major event to Britain's 'decade of sport'.

Glasgow, already staging the 2014 multi-sport Commonwealth Games, is bidding against Buenos Aires, Mexico's Guadalajara, the Polish city of Poznan, Colombia's Medellin and Rotterdam for the right to stage the Youth Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee are due to produce a list of candidate cities in February next year before announcing the winner in June 2013.

Coe, twice the Olympic 1,500 metre champion after gold medals at Moscow in 1980 and four years later in Los Angeles, has been keen to emphasise the British, as opposed to purely London, dimension of this year's Olympic Games.

“I want to see, in all four corners of the United Kingdom, people bidding for things,” Coe told the insidethegames.com website as he reflected on Scottish city Glasgow's Youth Games bid.

“That is what we said in Singapore in 2005 when we won the (Olympic) bid.

“We wanted that winning bid to be a catalyst for bringing more sporting events to Britain.

“If you look at what is going to be happening in the Olympic Park alone, we have got the World Athletics Championships there in 2017 in addition to the women's and men's European Hockey Championships in 2015.

“We are also looking to host the European Swimming Championships at the Olympic Park in 2016 so this is already a very, very good story.

“If you successfully show that you can bid and then deliver a major sporting event that often helps pave the way for a lot of other bids and a lot of successful sport so I'm behind the Glasgow bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics.” In addition, next year will see England as the main hosts of the Rugby League World Cup, with the Rugby Union equivalent coming to the game's birthplace in 2015 and the Cricket World Cup in 2019.

Coe, looking to the one major sporting event already secured by Glasgow, said: “The 2014 Commonwealth Games is very important and I see it as another step in terms of creating a bigger sporting participation and legacy in Britain.

“To have the Olympics and Paralympics and then two years later to have a Commonwealth Games in Britain is great.

“You have got to go back to the 1970s in Canada the last time that happened when you had the Montreal Olympics in 1976 followed by the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978.

“Not since then has any country had those two major events back to back.

“So it really is fantastic for sports participation and if Glasgow and Britain can keep that going with a successful bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics, I would be delighted.”

LONDON AFP