Buenos Aires bids farewell to its Youth Olympic Games with a party for athletes

The Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games ended twelve days of competition with a closing ceremony for the athletes that took place on the main stage of the Villa.

At an intimate ceremony of just 45 minutes, the city of Buenos Aires paid tribute to the contestants, judges and volunteers who participated in this festival of sport and culture in the Argentine capital.

"I did not think about winning, because it makes you focus more on the outcome than what you do and it's not right for you," said Spanish bowling captain Elia Canales 17 years old, at the end of the competition. .

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian Óscar Patín, a 5,000-meter gold medalist, said: "It is a very pleasant and welcoming experience, and the people of Argentina with whom I treated very kindly were extraordinary. other modalities, they have the quality to become friends, they are very sociable ".

The party included the speeches of Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, and Gerardo Werthein, his peer of the Argentinian Committee, in addition to the oath of the athletes and the passage of this post at the next Youth Games to be held in Dakar. Senegal, in 2024.

A fireworks fire marked the end of a party at which three DJs played music for the boys on the last evening of the Olympic Village.

Dickson Kah, representative of the official delegation of Cameroon, also expressed his opinion on these Games: "The experience was wonderful, the time I spent here really pleased me.The organization is beautiful and we find What I learned here is that the world must come together and that sport is a good excuse to do it. "

Karate coach Yuka Sato added, "This is the first time the karate modality has been part of the Olympic Games and that is why we had to hurry and adapt more quickly to bring our experience to the next level. other sports ".

The final image was the Olympic Flame in the Youth Olympic Park, which was extinguished after Thomas Bach decreed the closing of this event.