Throughout history great political, technological or artistic movement has come out of periods of great adversity. The United Nations from World War Two, satellite technology from the Cold War, great jazz from the Great Depression.
 

But in that adversity lies opportunity. The Olympic Movement has a once in a generation opportunity, I would say a responsibility, to better define and imbed its timeless values.
 

Last year we all witnessed a financial collapse that rocked the world’s economies – hitting communities hard. There were many reasons for that collapse but we need to be honest about one.
 

Short term, aggressive, narrow, individualistic behaviour played a central, exacerbating role in that crisis.

Behaviour that was the very antithesis of the Olympic spirit and its values. 

That impact has gone well beyond bank rescue plans and bankruptcies. It also precipitated a collective loss of confidence in many of our trusted institutions. 

If this creates a daunting world for leaders and adults then consider what it means for young people. They see even greater uncertainty in a world struggling to tackle other great issues of their future like climate change.

Is it really any wonder that so many young people are nervously surveying this landscape of disillusionment and challenging our values, beliefs and priorities.

Never let a good crisis go to waste. 

If the 20th Century was about bringing sport to the world then the 21st must be about reconnecting young people of the world to sport.

So how can we do that? First we must develop programmes that link Games together not programmes that start and finish in the course of an Olympiad. Often those programmes that do exist in that cycle are a duplication of both effort and resource. We need to think differently. So too do our sponsors who need to look beyond the two year churn of Winter and Summer Games.  

We launched International Inspiration two years ago with an ambition to connect 12 million young people to sport in 20 developing cities and countries by 2012. Brazil is one of the countries we have a programme running in and we hope the Rio 2016 team and future host cities and sponsors will be able to continue the work of International Inspiration after 2012. 

A few nights ago the hundreds of thousands of people on Copacabana beach celebrating the decision that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made to choose Rio de Janeiro as the city to host the 2016 Games. Most of them were young people. Their celebration didn’t just capture the moment it was a celebration of intent. They want to be involved. Our challenge is to engage them and make this movement relevant to their lives. 

Of course this engagement can be promoted through schools. But that is not enough. Millions of young people do not go to school – either by choice or circumstance.

New media and social networking goes a long way – a huge amount of our communications in London are through these platforms. But still that is not enough. 

At the IOC Congress in 1981 the Athletes Commission was born. Now, 28 years later in a more complicated, cluttered and conflicted landscape it is time to form a Youth Commission that can tackle and properly enshrine the challenges that young people face in our movement.

A Commission that really understands the world of young people, the language they speak, the technology that is familiar to them, their hopes and their ambitions, their daily challenges, wherever they live and whatever they believe. 

A Youth Commission that has the authority and the resources to engage the disengaged and reconnect them to the power of sport.

A Youth Commission who can make the Olympic and Paralympic values stand tall in the lives of young people.  Values of friendship, excellence, respect, courage and determination. What do these really mean to young people. 

Far too often we leave these values in their synthetic form in the laboratory – almost too precious to touch.  

The role of the Commission would be to make them live and breathe and this is probably not a job left to you or I. My children, your children define these value very differently from us. 

We must never forget we have a head start. Many young people see the Olympic Games as a metaphor for life. A devotion to a unique cause, not just the reward. Where that reward does exist it is rooted in effort, ability and performance not circumstance, inequality or patronage. We have to be seen to stand for things that matter to young people. 

For example, competitors who respect each other do not take performance enhancing drugs because they respect the effort – maybe value the friendship - of the person in the next lane.

When I asked a young boy last week what courage meant to him he told me it was standing up against others who were bullying someone he didn’t even know. That was his definition of courage.

All Olympic committees need committees need to ensure young people are involved in decisions about cornerstone programmes of an Olympic Games, especially sport, culture, education and legacy programmes to ensure they reflect the issues that are relevant to young people.

And in our challenge we do, of course, have a sign post to the ultimate legacy The founding father of the Olympic Movement Baron Pierre De Coubertin was clear.  He said: "My unshakable faith in youth and the future has been, and remains, the principle that gives life to my work."

It can – and should – give life to all our work, too.

Sebastian Coe is the chairman of London 2012 and a two-time Olympic champion in the 1500 metres.