Glasgow faces Buenos Aires in Argentina, Guadalajara in Mexico, Poznań in Poland, Medellín in Colombia and Rotterdam in the Netherlands for the right to stage the 2018 Youth Olympics with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) set to produce a shortlist of Candidate Cities in February 2013 before announcing the winning Host City in June 2013.

Coe (pictured above), who spearheaded the London 2012 bid team to victory in Singapore in 2005, admitted that part of the reason he wanted to get involved in the Olympic and Paralympic bid was to see more major events, like the Youth Olympic Games, come to Britain.


"I want see, in all four corners of the United Kingdom, people bidding for things," Coe told insidethegames.

"That is what we said in Singapore in 2005 when we won the bid.

"We wanted that winning bid to be a catalyst for bringing more sporting events to Britain.

"If you look at what is going to be happening in the Olympic Park (pictured above) alone, we have got the World Athletics Championships there in 2017 in addition to the women's and men's European Hockey Championships in 2015.

"We are also looking to host the European Swimming Championships at the Olympic Park in 2016 so this is already a very, very good story.

"If you successfully show that you can bid and then deliver a major sporting event that often helps pave the way for a lot of other bids and a lot of successful sport so I'm behind the Glasgow bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics."


Coe (pictured above, left, with Glasgow 2014 chairman Lord Robert Smith and Scottish Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Allan Wells), the double 1500 metre Olympic champion, also took the opportunity to praise the Glasgow 2014 in their build-up to Commonwealth Games, saying that the Scottish Organising Committee is a strong partner of London 2012.

"The 2014 Commonwealth Games is very important and I see it as another step in terms of creating a bigger sporting participation and legacy in Britain," he said.

"To have the Olympics and Paralympics and then two years later to have a Commonwealth Games in Britain is great.

"You have got to go back to the 1970s in Canada the last time that happened when you had the Montreal Olympics in 1976 followed by the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978.

"Not since then has any country had those two major events back to back.

"So it really is fantastic for sports participation and if Glasgow and Britain can keep that going with a successful bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics, I would be delighted."

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