Buenos Aires Update: 31,000 Students to Olympic Parks

(ATR) More than 31,000 school children from Buenos Aires helped fill venues across the city on the third day of the Youth Olympic Games.

Buenos Aires 2018 Executive Director Leandro Larrosa tells Around the Rings that he is pleased to see the turnout of students as well as families coming to the Olympic parks.

"They’re getting to try all kinds of sports, getting to see firsthand what the Olympics are all about," he says.

On Tuesday alone, more than four dozen Sports Initiation activities were scheduled at the YOG sports clusters around the city. There’s one for every event in the Buenos Aires program.

Larrosa says the idea of creating an array of activities beyond simply sports events, is helping to attract the families and young people to the parks. On Monday he says 29,000 students visited YOG venues, 31,000 on Tuesday. He says the trend should continue through October 18, final day of this third edition of the summer YOG.

Golf Begins

The competition in golfopened Tuesday at Hurlingham Club, established more than 100 years ago about 25 km east of Buenos Aires. About 60 golfers are taking part in three days of individual stroke competition, evenly divided between boys and girls. Day four of competition uses a mixed team format to conclude the tournament with those scores combined with those from strokeplay.

Wild Boars Head Home

The Wild Boars football team from Thailand is on its way home after five days in Buenos Aires as the guests of the IOC.

The teenagers became world-famous a few months ago when they were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand after nearly two weeks underground. The team attended opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games and played a friendly match with a group of Argentinian youngsters at the fabled national stadium this past weekend.

No formal interviews were scheduled with the Wild Boars, who are still being treated for the extraordinary physical and mental stresses they faced while trapped in the cave.

Tuesday Schedule

On this third day of competition, 21 sports events are being contested, nine of them medal events.

Coverage of the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games is made possible in part by BA 2018

Reported in Buenos Aires by Ed Hula.

Coverage of the Youth Olympic Games made possible in part with support from Buenos Aires 2018.