By Marc Lim, Sports Correspondent

AIDE Iskandar recalls being just eight when he was inspired to become a Lion. He was among those who cheered on Fandi Ahmad and Co. at the National Stadium during the 1983 South-east Asia Games football final.

Although Singapore lost the match 1-2 to Thailand, the Lions won Aide over.

So much so that when he became the first Singapore captain to lift the Asean Football Championship on home soil 22 years later, he credited that day in 1983 as the defining moment of his football journey.

Said Aide: 'Seeing your team compete on home soil, your own fans cheering them, the atmosphere is just fantastic.

'I was inspired to be like the players on the field and do my country proud.'

At the 1993 SEA Games, while Ang Peng Siong and other swimmers were helping the Singapore team win at Toa Payoh, an 11-year-old boy stood in awe in the stands. Said former national swimmer Gary Tan: 'It was my introduction to what national pride really means.

'The joy I got from seeing my local heroes do well, from cheering for anyone who competed for the Singapore flag, it served as a big motivation to want to be a national athlete.'

It has been 16 long years, but Singapore is finally hosting another multi-sport event. The inaugural Asian Youth Games (AYG) will be declared open tonight, marking the start of a week of drama and rivalry, where medals will be won, but not before tears are lost by those who came so close, but not quite close enough.

Yet there is something even more special in the fact that Singapore is hosting the first AYG. For the first time, it is youths, not established international athletes, who will take centre stage.

For the first time, teenagers aged 14 to 17 will leave the stadiums not wondering: 'I hope I can be like them when I grow up,' but rather feeling, 'if my peers can do it, there's no reason why I can't'.

As the head coach of Singapore's AYG swim team David Lim told The Straits Times: 'A big part of the problem facing youth coaches in Singapore is that our kids don't often dare to dream.

'Hosting the AYG is the perfect platform for not only our competitors, but also for the younger kids watching in the stands. It is time they realised that if other kids are running the 100m in 11 seconds, if other kids are swimming the 100m under 55 seconds, they can do it too.'

Even before the traditional Games flame is lit today, Singapore's young athletes have already shown the courage to dream - in the football tournament which kicked off a week earlier.

At the Jalan Besar Stadium on Saturday, 2,500 fans saw their national under-14 team come within minutes of snatching a surprise result.

They may have been outmuscled by the physically bigger Iranian boys but captain Jeffrey Lightfoot and his team stood tall against the best from one of Asia's top footballing sides.

Hanafi Akbar scored the goal of the game when his rocket from 25m flew straight into the top corner of the net to bring the hosts level.

In the end, the young Singaporeans fell 1-2 to a goal six minutes from time. But even in defeat, the team won fans over with their skill, tenacity and spirit.

So often before, even at the senior level, Singapore teams have been afraid to take the game to the more established footballing sides in Asia.

This team has shown that the gulf is perhaps not as wide as people think.

Mustering the courage to dream will also be needed for Brunei and Tajikistan - who along with Lebanon, are the only two-athlete contingents among the 43 participating countries.

They will form but a tiny fraction of the more than 1,400 athletes across nine sports at the Games, and will hardly be expected to finish among the top few.

But, in making the journey to Singapore, they will hopefully inspire a new generation of young athletes so that by the time the next AYG comes along, others will also be willing to be as bold.

Yet, as with most Games, it is not just sports that matter.

Singapore's hosting of the AYG has seen 45 of the Republic's schools twinned with Asian countries, as part of the host's culture and education programme.

Students in schools such as Dunman High, Hong Wen Primary School and Bowen Secondary School have incorporated studies about Japan, Cambodia and Kuwait respectively into their curriculum.

The Games have offered these kids an opportunity to learn, interact and make friends with kids from countries they otherwise might not be familiar with.

The Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect will be introduced to the young athletes throughout the course of the Games.

And it is through sport that hopefully barriers can also be broken.

The two Koreas - divided for so long - will meet for probably the first time in a youth competition of such magnitude.

South and North Korea will come head to head tomorrow in the football competition.

Yet, despite the rivalry and the pursuit of excellence, it is hoped that friendship and mutual respect can also be forged.

These Games have not been without hiccups. There has been miscommunication about arrival times. The forced withdrawals of the Philippine and Hong Kong football teams owing to the H1N1 spread caused a slight disruption to the fixtures.

Malaysia's decision to not send the bulk of its contingent to take part because of the H1N1 threat may have also put a dampener on the inaugural Games.

But in dealing and coping with the unexpected, hopefully all the creases will be ironed out by the time the world comes next year, when Singapore hosts the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

Indeed, there are many positives one can take from hosting the AYG.

But perhaps the loudest cheers should be saved for Team Singapore.

From Yishun to Woodlands, Toa Payoh to East Coast, let Asia know that Singaporeans can be a sport-loving people.

And hopefully, apart from showing Asia our sporting side, that 10-year-old sitting next to you will be inspired, just as Aide and Gary were, to sustain and grow Singapore's sporting culture.

That is the kind of lasting legacy this Games should leave behind long after the flame is extinguished.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.