The selfie Games

NANJING — International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach had urged the young athletes to send a message of friendship to the world when the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games (YOG) opened last Saturday.

Since then, about 4,000 selfies with the hashtag #YOGselfie have been posted on popular social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, according to the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (NYOGOC).

While the host nation is known to have strict control over Internet access, the Great Firewall of China looks to have been disabled for all accredited athletes, officials and members of the media, allowing for Bach’s campaign for the young athletes to “set a record for selfies” to proceed unhindered.

“By sending this selfie with the hastag ‘#YOGselfie’, you are sending a strong message around the world,” Bach said. “You are showing your passion for sport … You are demonstrating that Olympic sport reaches beyond competition. It is also about sharing, learning and making friends across our globe.”

To that end, members from NYOGOC have also been going around the Youth Olympic Village, competition venues, and even the main media centre with selfie sticks.

“The IOC President initiated this, and we are helping to carry his wish out further,” said Jordan Sun from NYOGOC, who was calling out to athletes at the Youth Olympic Village to take a “YOG selfie”. “We want to collect smiles from all over the world. It captures the spirit of the Youth Olympics in a time of social media explosion. Young people love it.”

Athletes from the Singapore contingent have also jumped on to the selfie bandwagon, according to Gary Tan, team manager of the Singapore swimming contingent at the YOG.

“The swimmers have also immersed themselves in the cultural village too, and they really enjoyed the selfie booth where you can take pictures with props,” said Tan. “I think they truly appreciate what the organisers have done to allow the free use of social media here.”

Eugene Ong, team manager for Singapore’s two triathletes Denise Chia and Bryce Chong, said the duo have been learning how to cook, speak different languages, and engage in other activities as part of the Cultural Education Programme at the Games, all of which have been faithfully captured on photo.

“I don’t think it’s a distraction,” said Ong, noting both his charges achieved their personal bests. “The Youth Olympics is not just performance-based. It is about character development too.”

Said Singaporean shooter Martina Veloso: “I made many friends here, because each athlete has this device attached to our accreditation pass, and we can find out all about another athlete just by tapping our passes against each other.”