Wild, Wild West in the East.

Recently, the boys, Ainan, Fintan and Tiarnan, attended a sports event at Fintan’s school. Of greater interest to them, than the “Jogathon”, were the fairground like attractions that accompanied it.

The boys set themselves a challenge: they were going to win various prizes, by their skill at the fairground. I had my doubts about the wisdom of this, having background memories of the fairgrounds of my childhood, in which most of the games were rigged in favour of the fairground…more of an UNfairground, as it were.

My life experience proved telling, at first. A handful of tickets were bought at 3 Ringgits a piece and the boys set about with their plan. The first challenge was to knock down nine “bowling pins”, with three coconuts. At first, the boys thought this looked easy, since they had had some experience of bowling and knew just how to handle the situation. So, they duly bowled the coconuts towards the pins. This, however, didn’t work. The coconuts veered off course, their odd shapes making them unruly. So, one ticket wasted.

Fintan tried, this time. Having observed that bowling wouldn’t work, in this particular “bowling” challenge, he elected to throw the coconuts at the pins. This was much better – he hit the top of one pin and it fell over. The pins beside it, however, were remarkably resistant to being knocked down. There was something fishy here. Fintan’s next throw hit the pins full on, midway up the pins. They didn’t move at all. Now, it became clear just how this game was rigged: the pins were heavily weighted, in the lower half. Hitting them full on, would have no effect on them at all. These were bowling pins that couldn’t be bowled. What a cheat. That wasn’t the only thing that was dishonest. You see, when people assess the challenge, they have an understanding of how much a coconut weighs. But these coconuts were incredibly light: they had been drained and emptied of all fluid, then dessicated. It was like bowling with balsa wood.

So, the fairgrounds of Asia, were just like the fairgrounds of my childhood: unfairgrounds!

The purpose of the fairground was, of course, to make money, for the school. However, it did seem unfair to take away from all those who played this game, any real chance of winning. In other situations, this bowling game would be called a con.

We left the large queue of people waiting to bowl and assessed the other games present.

Ainan’s eyes grew wide when he saw a shooting game. The task was simple. Players had to use a nerf gun (not intrinsically very accurate), to shoot small ducks on a board. The ducks were about three inches wide and about one and a half inches high: not very big targets for such an inaccurate gun.

We watched the previous player shoot his three shots. He missed three times. It just wasn’t particularly easy. Seeing this, I did wonder if the “house” was going to win again.

Ainan held the loaded gun with the utmost casualness. Anyone who didn’t know him, might have viewed his confidence as misplaced. In rapid succession, he squeezed off three shots, re-aiming on a different duck between each shot. Three ducks duly fell. He had won.

Perhaps, the boys’ ambition to win a few prizes was not so misplaced after all!

The attendant manning the stall revealed no reaction, beyond a little evaluative stare at Ainan. He ticked our “prize card”, with a special pencil to signal that we were owed one prize.

The next challenge was a traditional one for fairgrounds: knocking down a triangle made out of tin cans, with three tennis balls.

Again, we watched others attempt the task. It wasn’t so easy either. It was easy to knock down some of the cans, with the first ball (if it hit the cans at all), but that usually left a lot of free standing cans, too separated to be knocked down, other than individually. As a result, all the people we watched ran out of balls, before they ran out of cans to knock down.

Then it was Ainan’s turn.

He held his tennis ball lightly in his right hand, which I thought interesting considering that he is left handed (from the point of view of which hand he writes with). He tossed it casually towards the cans.

Bang! All of them fell down.

Ainan had beaten the game with a single shot.

“I aimed at the mathematically weakest point.”, he explained. Ah. So science had been his secret weapon.

The attendant looked a little surprised and smiled a little, at what he had seen. Tellingly, he didn’t even have the special pencil required to mark a winner. He had to go off and borrow someone else’s – so he hadn’t exactly had many winners.

So, it looked like I was wrong. The boys were going to win some prizes and beat this fairground. Their secret was to stick to games in which there was actual skill involved and which weren’t rigged. In such a situation, Ainan won every time.

The boys went to collect their first round of prizes: a set of Ben 10 stationery and a set of Transformers stationery for Fintan and Tiarnan. They eyed some “Angry Bird” merchandise and elected to aim for that, too. They needed to win four games to get it. Ainan’s comment? “No problem”.

He was right. He duly went off and shot nine ducks in a row and knocked down a pyramid of cans, to bag his prize. It was clearly no challenge for him at all.

To be frank, I hadn’t expected that, since Ainan has shown little interest in sports – yet, the skills required for these tasks were sporting ones (whether he knew it or not). Perhaps, the fact that they were not so obviously sports, or presented as such, allowed him to be interested enough to meet the challenge.

I was pleased to find out that my son was such a “Wild West kid”. Well done Ainan.

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Youth Olympic Games 2010, IOC

Recognizing gifted athletes, and giving them opportunities, is just as important as recognizing gifted intellectuals and giving them opportunities, for growth, too. Sadly, many societies (outside of America, which already nurtures the athletically gifted among them), neglect those of athletic ability.

Singapore is one such country. For most of Singapore's history, sports have played little role in society, though some sporting figures have managed to make a career. The reason for this neglect has been a pragmatic one: sports were not regarded as financially rewarding. There was no significant home market for sports and so no high regard was given to those of sporting ability. It was seen as something without real significance. That, however, has begun to change in recent years. Indeed, in the year 2000, Singapore launched a Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FST) in order to recruit overseas sporting talent, while young, give them residency, and launch them as Singaporean athletes. This was a bid to activate Singapore's sporting scene and place them on the world stage. It has had varying degrees of success and should be the subject of another post, at another time.

Singapore, today, has indicated its intention to hold the first Youth Olympic Games, in Singapore, in 2010. It is one of ten nations bidding for the right to hold this event. The other cities (nations) are: Algiers (Algeria), Athens (Greece), Moscow (Russia), Turin (Italy), Bangkok (Thailand), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Poznan (Poland). Bidders have until October 26 to finalize their bids and plans.

The event is, according to Ng Ser Miang, Singapore's International Olympic Committee member, intended to "interest and appeal" to the young. To do so, traditional sports have been shelved or modified. Basketball will make an appearance as a three person game on a half-sized court. There could be beach wrestling. You read that correctly: wrestling on the beach. There will be a sailing event with specially adapted boats, "youth class boats", that cater for the strengths, abilities and limitations of younger athletes. The events are designed for athletes who are 14 to 18 years old.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has indicated that there will be a departure from the nationalism evident at all adult Olympic Games - for no national flags or anthems will be permitted at this one. Only the Olympic flag and Olympic anthem will be played at the medal award ceremony.

Mr. Ng Ser Miang said that the Youth Olympic Games would help educate youth on the core Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship. He also suggested it could steer competitors away from over-training and doping.

Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Permanent Secretary Niam Chiang Meng, Chairman of the Singapore 2010 bid committee said that Singapore's good track record in organizing events quickly would help it secure the event. This point is a fair one, since there will only be two and a half years to prepare for the event once the result is announced.

Now, I am happy to hear of this development, for it offers young athletes a new focus to their training and aspirations. It is a long way from childhood to the adult Olympic stage - placing this new stepping stone along the path will allow young athletes to focus themselves and compete against their age-mates and gain some idea of the wisdom of pursuing an adult athletic career once they fully mature.

Not that alone. Allowing young athletes an opportunity to win recognition for their talents, earlier in their careers, may allow them to make better use of the few short years that an athlete can truly say that they are at their best. There will be less wasted time for those athletes who succeed at this junior level. Sponsorship and support could be forthcoming much earlier on. I feel, also, that many more athletes are likely to develop their talents, what with a new arena to focus on and develop their skills for. It is possible that this new IOC initiative could have a wide-ranging impact on the development of athletes around the world. The IOC is to be commended.

The Youth Olympic Games is likely to spur many young athletes to train that bit harder and aspire that bit harder, such that more of them become athletes and win successful careers. The opportunities a win at the Youth Olympic Games could open up, could change their lives so much for the better.

Gift, of all kinds, is precious. Any initiative that is likely to give greater opportunity to the gifted, whatever their gift might be, whether intellectual, athletic, artistic, or other, is to be supported. The very richness and substance of a society depends on offering the best of opportunities to all who might have the gifts to avail themselves of them.

I, for one, will tune in, in 2010, to see the athletes of tomorrow, in their earliest public performances. I wish them - and the IOC - luck in this new endeavour. May it become an established athletic event.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)