By LEE U-WEN

WHEN the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) rolls around next year, more than 30,000 people involved in putting the event together will be decked out in clothes by home-grown Crocodile International.

Unveiled as the latest sponsor of the Games, the 62-year-old lifestyle fashion group is also the first local small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to get on board the YOG sponsorship bandwagon, as official apparel partner.

While the exact amount of its commitment was not disclosed at yesterday's signing ceremony, Crocodile is part of the prestigious Tier 1 sponsorship group, which means that it gets exclusive rights in this particular product category and receives maximum exposure for its brand by being associated with the Olympic rings and other YOG-related images.

The 30,000-strong YOG workforce - including volunteers, technical officials, torchbearers and relay escorts - will all be attired by Crocodile, YOG organising committee CEO Goh Kee Nguan said at a media conference at the Fairmont Singapore yesterday.

So far, there are 45 sponsors for YOG, which will feature some 3,600 top athletes and 1,400 coaches and managers, who will fly into Singapore to take part in 26 Olympic sports.

Giving an update on the progress in organising the Games since winning the bid 18 months ago, Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that everything is 'on track and on time'.

He also gave his take on some of the negative feedback received during last month's Asian Youth Games, which was used as a testing bed for YOG.

He cited some issues - poor attendance at events, a lack of publicity and irregular updating of the official website with scores and latest news - as lessons that the YOG committee will study to ensure that there is no repeat.

'We have a couple of hundred thousand tickets available for all the YOG events, so we hope to have all the stadiums and centres filled with fans,' said Dr Balakrishnan. 'It would be a waste if people don't show up and support the event, having put in all the effort to organise it. We will ramp up our publicity and create greater awareness.'

Like its elder sibling the Summer Olympics, YOG will have its own one-year countdown clock in the lead-up to the opening ceremony on Aug 14 next year at the Marina Bay floating platform.

A gala event featuring a concert, party and an Olympic Day run, among other things, will be held at the Padang tomorrow. The highlight of the evening will be the unveiling of the Omega-sponsored countdown clock by Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security S Jayakumar.

This article was first published in The Business Times.