BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- China will dispatch a 108-member squad including 70 athletes and 38 officials to the inaugural Youth Olympics Games (YOG) slated for August 14 to 26 in Singapore, the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) announced here on Wednesday.
The YOG is expected to be an international multi-sport events consistent with the Olympic Games format, featuring athletes between ages of 14 to 18.
The first YOG will include 26 sports, 201 events, among which china will take part in 19 sports, 102 events. The six sports that Chinese athletes will miss are boxing, cycling, handball, hockey, soccer and volleyball.
"Chinese athletes are with a relatively high competing level in sports like gymnastics, shooting, taekwondo, table tennis and weightlifting," said Cai Jiadong, deputy Chef de Mission of the Chinese delegation, at Wednesday's news conference.
Apart from competing in the Games, the 70 Chinese teenagers, 40 girls and 30 boys, will also take part in a series of cultural and educational programs as part of the quadrennial sport gala for the youth.
The Chinese young athletes started their two-day camping on the outskirts of Beijing on Wednesday to build up for the coming Games. And the whole delegation will fly for Singapore in two groups on August 12 and 13.
Singapore will host the first Youth Olympic Games on August 14-26, which will receive some 5,000 athletes and officials from the 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), along with an estimated 1,200 media representatives, 20,000 local and international volunteers, and more than 370,000 spectators.
