The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that for the first time in the history of the Olympic Movement, a blogger will be able to cover the Olympic events alongside the traditional mass media, having been officially accredited for the First Youth Olympic Games which open in Singapore on 14 August 2010. As a result of a competition that was run in the IOC’s LiveJournal, 36 year old Russian, Madina Kucheryavenko, is being sent to the Singapore Games. She told net users about how the Sochi Games can motivate Russia’s youth. 36 year old Madina Kucheryavenko from Moscow won the first blogging competition conducted by the IOC.

The competition was run on the official IOC blog on RuNet and for several weeks attracted several thousand unique visitors. Among the replies to the competition question “How can the Olympic Games motivate Russia’s youth?”, Madina Kucheryavenko’s reply was acknowledged to be the best just 4 days before the Opening Ceremony of the First Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. In 2010 the IOC actively began to cooperate with social networking sites in order to talk about Olympic values, to share cutting-edge experience and to engage in a dialogue with young people, athletes, volunteers and the mass media. Today millions of people communicating with each other on the various social networking sites – Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and Twitter – have become fans and followers of the Olympic Games.

The President of the Organising Committee for Sochi 2014, Dmitry Chernyshenko, commented, “The Olympic Movement, just like the Internet, knows no geographic boundaries. And the fact that internet users will now be able to share their emotions in real-time, talk about such Olympic values as Friendship, Respect and Excellence, is a tremendous break-through in the coverage of the Games. In preparing for the innovative Olympic Games in Sochi we will definitely be taking into account the experience of the IOC and will certainly be maintaining an active presence on the web, giving everyone the opportunity to become involved in the Olympic Movement”. The first Youth Olympic Games will be held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010 and will become a unique event in the history of the Olympic Movement. Taking part will be 3,600 talented young athletes aged from 14 to 18 who will demonstrate outstanding achievements not only in sports competitions, but also in a series of educational and cultural programmes. In the coverage of the First Youth Olympic Games full use will be made of social networking sites; this will give people maximum access to information on the Games and stimulate interest amongst young people throughout the world.