As Bach heaped praise on organisers for delivering an event which "exceeded our expectations", he also decided, for some unknown reason, to have a sly dig at the media attending the closing press conference.

"I’m sorry for you that it may be a little bit boring because usually you don’t look so much for good news and I have only to tell you good news today," Bach said.

"I hope for once you accept this because I’m sure you also in your experience you have the same feelings and you share this judgment about really great Youth Olympic Games."

I could go on about how Bach’s claim about us in the media is wrong on so many levels - he need only look at the coverage of Buenos Aires 2018 to realise that - but that would only play into his hands.

Seeing as we are pilloried in certain circles for being overly critical and cynical about the IOC and the Olympic Games in general, I shall instead start with a positive; Buenos Aires 2018 was a well-executed event and was delivered largely how a Youth Olympics should be.

That was the view of many journalists as we departed the Argentinian capital, a city which is rugged and resplendent in equal measure. It was also the opinion of plenty of the athletes, coaches and officials who had taken part.

The IOC has their own definition of success when it comes to any edition of the Games, which often varies considerably from the reality, but Buenos Aires 2018 did not fall into that category.

Spectators took full advantage of organisers offering free access as over a million people flocked to events across Buenos Aires 2018, including the Opening Ceremony, as the Games bucked the trend of empty seats seen at the Olympics.

There were long queues at every venue as a result yet the people who stood waiting did so respectfully and admirably. They may have been frustrated but they did not show it.

This was a "good problem to have", according to IOC executive director for the Olympic Games Christophe Dubi and looking back with retrospect it is hard to disagree.

Not charging ticket prices proved somewhat of a masterstroke. While the Youth Olympics may have the five rings and all the prestige that comes with it, the event is still a youth-level competition and making people pay over the odds to watch 14 to 18-year-olds compete hardly seems justified.

The Urban Park, featuring the street-style disciplines of 3x3 basketball, BMX freestyle and others including sport climbing, also worked well and is a concept the IOC and any Organising Committee must consider implementing in the future.

The atmosphere generated at the Park was second to none, with music and "try the sport" activities perfectly complementing the sporting action on offer. Tokyo 2020, take note.

Sports such as futsal and hockey fives, a break from the traditional format which features at the main Olympics, also added merit to the Games.

Futsal in particular seemed to strike a chord with the locals as its fast-paced and captivating style ensured the discipline made a good case for Olympic inclusion in future.

In many ways, futsal replacing the football competition, a mainstay of the Olympic programme since Berlin 1936, makes sense.

Amid the desperation from the IOC for host cities to cut costs, futsal would be a cheaper alternative; it could take place in one or two multi-use indoor venues rather than the several main stadiums needed for an Olympic football event and, therefore, save considerable amounts from the operational and logistical budget.

A futsal tournament, perhaps featuring 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams, would feasibly be shorter and would also contribute to the hallowed gender equality so often touted by the IOC.

We are exposed to so much actual football these days that it can be difficult to get excited about an under-23 international tournament and a futsal event would briefly halt the over-saturation of its bigger cousin.

This is not to say this should happen immediately. Further development is clearly required, particularly in women’s futsal as the gulf in class between the top nations and the smaller countries was brutally highlighted in the bronze medal match, where Spain thrashed Bolivia 11-0.

Having futsal instead of football on the programme is unlikely, however, given the financial draw the latter provides for Organising Committees and host cities.

An Olympic football tournament also allows the other areas of the countries to tap in to the nationwide enthusiasm generated by staging the Games, and this element would be dramatically reduced if futsal were to take its place.

While futsal was among the success stories, other events felt like they were shoe-horned onto the Buenos Aires 2018 programme for the sake of it. This certainly could be said of the mixed international team competitions, many of which proved rather futile and added little value to the Games.

Events in top-tier Olympic sports such as athletics and cycling were also needlessly complicated and confusing. Why did organisers feel the need to veer from the well-established format both enjoy at the main Games?

Elsewhere, very few archers, divers and judokas, for example, will look back and pinpoint their mixed competition as a highlight from their Youth Olympic Games experience and the competitive benefits are also unclear.

The IOC bang on about how the Youth Olympics should remain as the Games are an elite-level competition which offers a pathway to the main Games for athletes from all over the world, but I question whether that is the case for athletes in these mixed events.

After all, there were numerous examples of competitors being unnecessarily placed out of their comfort zone; one diver was forced to go off the 10 metres board for the first time in years purely because of the demand of a mixed competition and it is unlikely he ever will again at a major event.

A case could be made that these events demean the value of winning an Olympic medal - this also applies to the main Games, where mixed competitions are slowly becoming more prominent on the programme - and it hardly seems fair that a mixed international team table tennis gold medal is given the same credence as the Youth Olympic 100 metres title.

It also raises questions as to whether the Youth Games should remain an Olympic event. One proposal floated around Buenos Aires by one IOC member was scrapping the Youth Olympics in favour of staging similar multi-sport Games at continental rather than global level.  

The idea is that every continent would hold a small-scale Youth Games tailored to their region, thereby allaying fears over costs while enabling a greater number of young athletes get the chance to compete for a major medal.

This is already the case in some areas, including Europe and Africa, but these would be further developed with the help of the IOC if the Youth Olympics are consigned to the history books.

Another option which has seemingly not been raised, but ought to be considered, is grouping together World Junior Championships to create an event similar to the European Championships concept which made its debut in Glasgow and Berlin in August.

Doing so would ensure the very best competitors at junior and youth level took part - this was not completely true of some of the sports at Buenos Aires 2018 - while generating the same multi-sport Games experience for the athletes.

The good news mentioned by Bach in his thinly-veiled dig at the media is that the size and scale of Buenos Aires 2018 was ideal.

The bad news supposedly favoured by us in the media is that the Buenos Aires 2018 has not entirely quelled doubts and questions over the future of the Youth Olympic Games and its place in the increasingly-congested sporting landscape.