The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, it was the first International Olympic Committee–sanctioned event held in Southeast Asia. The Games featured about 3,600 athletes aged 14–18 from 204 nations, who competed in 201 events in 26 sports. No official medal tables were published, but the most successful nation was China, followed by Russia; host Singapore did not win any gold medals. Most features that are unique to the YOG, such as mixed-NOCs teams (comprising youths from different countries) and the Culture and Education Programme (CEP), made their debut at the 2010 Games.
Although the concept dates back to 1998, formal plans for the YOG were only first announced at the 119th IOC session on 6 July 2007. On 21 February 2008, Singapore was selected as the host city after defeating Moscow 53–44 in a postal vote by 105 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members. The Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) prepared eighteen competition venues and twelve training venues. The Float@Marina Bay hosted the opening and closing ceremonies and the Youth Olympic Village was located at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The committee also selected Games mascots Lyo and Merly (a lion and a female merlion), the Spirit of Youth emblem (through a design competition) and the theme song "Everyone", performed by five singers representing each major continent, combining North and South America.
