In the past week, every primary school child in Glasgow received a letter asking their families to support the bid with around 19,600 secondary school pupils having already pledged their allegiance.

The campaign itself now has 36,000 Facebook followers, 70 per cent of who are under the age of 24, with Glasgow up against Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Medellín and Rotterdam for the right to stage the third Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

"Young people have embraced this bid in a way we could never have hoped for," said Glasgow 2018 bid leader Paul Bush.

"Through the city's already extensive ways of communicating with its young people, as well as through a whole range of social media channels, we are reaching every child in the city and many more across Scotland and the UK.

"Glasgow has the experience and expertise to stage a world-class sporting event and what a privilege it would be to harness its ambition and vision for its young people to use its proven youth networks to work in partnership with the Olympic Movement to empower young people across the world to be champions in their own lives."


The race to host the 2018 Youth Olympics is now entering a crucial stage with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board due to announce the shortlisted Candidate Cities next month at its meeting in Lausanne on Wednesday (February 13).

The shortlisted cities will then make formal presentations to the IOC Evaluation Commission, chaired by Germany's Claudia Bokel, who will produce a report on the Candidate Cities.

Following the publication of the report, the full IOC membership is due to elect a host city in Lausanne on July 4.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]