Ten days are left before the Opening Ceremony of the  Summer Youth Olympic Games, the sport event for young athletes between the age of 15 and 18 that will be held in Nanjing in China from the 16th to the 28th of August. After the start in Singapore in 2010 and that in winter in Innsbruck (Austria) in 2012, the Youth Olympic Games are back with 28 sports (to the 26 sports golf and rugby in 7 have been added, as a preview before the expected debut of Rio De Janeiro in 2016) and with 30 disciplines distributed in 12 days in 27 facilities. 3808 athletes (214 more than in Singapore), representing 204 National Olympic Committees spread in 5 continents, will fight to conquer 222 Olympic awards (109 between males, 95 for women, 18 in the competitions dedicated to mixed age and nationality groups). More than 20000 volunteers, many of them students from Chinese universities, thousands of accredited journalists, almost all the facilities sold out and the hospitality of the Olympic Village designed to exceed 5000 people, with technicians and escorts from the various delegations: these are the numbers of an extraordinary event, which, despite belonging to the younger category, aims to get close to the record Olympic Games of Beijing in 2008. Thus, today the countdown starts also for the 69 components (confronted with the 62 of the 2010) from the #Italianteam who on Monday the 11th of August will leave from Rome and in part from Milan to fly to Nanjing, ancient Capital of the South, built on the delta of the Azure River. 33 men and 36 women (among them also Aurora Tognetti, pentathlete champion and flag-bearer of CONI mission) will deal with 21 disciplines (three more than Singapore), trying to make better than the 25 placings (8 gold - 10 silver - 7 bronze medals) obtained by their predecessors.

Lombardy with 13 athletes is the most present region, followed by Latium (10) and by the duo Veneto/Emilia Romagna, both with 7. Only Valle d'Aosta, Molise and Basilicata are missing, which were absent in 2010 too, as well as Sardinia, which instead took part in the inaugural exhibition of the YOG with an athlete from Cagliari. The slogan "Share the games, share our dreams", finally, lets understand that #Nanjing2014 will be one of the most shared CIO events ever. On youtube/Olympics it will be possible to find the most beautiful images, both of the cerimonies and of the competitions, while the Organizing Committee (NYOGOC) has activated since time the official site (www.nanjing2014.org/en) and all its social channels. Also the Italian fans will be able to follow the enterprises of their favourites remaining connected to facebook.com/ConiNews, Twitter (@coninews) and Youtube (conisocial), as well as the new website www.coni.it. Thus, exactly after two years from the start of Rio De Janeiro Games, the dream of the best sport youth of the world is taking shape, who, even if Brasil is too close, is looking forward to Nanjing as a springboard for Japan and Tokyo2020. As the hymn of the #YouthOlympicGames "Dreams Never End"(composed by Bian Liu-nian, musical director of the Olympic Opening Ceremony of Beijing) declaims, dreams, most of all those of the young, do never end!

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