As former president of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge's legacy, the Youth Olympic Games was not at first expected to have as much vitality as its two big brothers, the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

But from the second Youth Olympic Games, which started in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province on August 16, I have sensed that great sport events like the Olympic Games, after so many years of deviation from real sportsmanship, have finally found their way back.

This is because the Games authorities have made several groundbreaking decisions to change the landscape of the event to get rid of the haunting utilitarianism. They have decided to abandon an official medal table, readjust the way some team events like tennis and relay races are usually played, to a mixed manner both in terms of genders and nationality, and not to recognize new world records if they are set during the Games.

The athletes participating in the Youth Olympic Games are usually aged between 15 to 18 years old. Passion and love are the most valuable drive that inspires them to engage in sports. In this case, the Olympic motto "faster, higher, stronger," which stirs up the enthusiasm of humankind to consistently go beyond physical and mental limits, cannot be properly applied to these teenage athletes. Protecting their zeal and interest in sports should be the priority.

It is right that the Youth Olympic Games is not run as a competition, but more like a playground where opportunities are offered to the most athletically promising young people who can meet, talk and make friends with each other.

Since China resumed its connection with the world's largest sporting event and got its first ticket to Los Angeles in 1984, the Olympic Games has been given too much significance. It became a tool for China, whose door had just opened to the outside world, to regain its national pride.

Driven by this philosophy, China has been perpetuating a system of elite sport training. Athletes are recruited to engage in sports only, and their only mission is to win the gold medal to get honor for the country. Medals, especially gold medals, have become the only criteria to measure the value of participating in the Games and the value of an athlete.

That is why it is very comforting to see that utilitarianism is put aside in this event, and the whole atmosphere makes viewers feel quite detached from many emotional strings, such as blind patriotism.

The Nanjing Youth Olympic Games could serve as a start for Chinese authorities to change their mindset about how sports should and must serve the interests of the nation. Sports are not the privilege of captive athletes, but part of the life of the public.

The outdated elite-oriented sporting system does not align with the rise of civil society, where the involvement of civilians has spread to almost every social aspect. It is high time that the initiative of engaging in sporting activities be taken up by the public, and the excessive labels of the Olympic Games should be peeled off.

Wen Dao, a freelance writer based in Beijing