International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge called Tuesday for athletes to uphold the Olympic values at a winter Games free of doping in Vancouver and Whistler. At the start of the IOC's 122nd Session three days before the opening ceremony of the Games, Rogge also praised the local organisers, saying the lessons learned in Vancouver were a blueprint for future Olympics.
IOC members are to vote Wednesday on either Poznan, Poland or Nanjing, China as host of the second summer Youth Olympic Games in 2014. The youth Games, a Rogge brainchild, will be hosted in 2012 for the first time in August 2010 by Singapore, while Innsbruck, Austria will host the first Youth Olympic Winter Games in 2012. "The Games are a global celebration of sport. But we must never forget that the Games are not an end in themselves. They are a means to an end," Rogge said.
"We owe it to them to do everything we can to ensure that the competition is fair and free of doping. We will do our part." Praising the Vancouver organising committee VANOC, Rogge said: "Hosting the Games is always a complex and challenging undertaking. VANOC and its partners rose to the challenge without compromising the original vision for these Games.
Rogge began his speech by remembering the victims of the terrorist attacks on the Togolese football team in Angola before the Africa Cup of Nations and the deaths of many fans killed during a volleyball match in Pakistan. The IOC Session meets until Friday when the Games begin and again on Sunday February 28, the last day of the Games.
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