THE Olympic legend who helped win the 2012 Games for London has called Glasgow's bid to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games a "historic opportunity."

Lord Coe, chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA) and former chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, said Glasgow 2018 could be the "crucial next step" in the UK's Olympic movement.

It came after major details of the bid were unveiled yesterday at Tollcross International Acquatics Centre, which will open in spring next year.

Members of the City of Glasgow Swim Team joined Government Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport Shona Robison, Leader of Glasgow City Council Gordon Matheson, and BOA board member and Olympic Gold medallist David Hemery to help launch the Executive Summary .

Tollcross will stage the swimming events at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and is the proposed venue for the Youth Olypic Games (YOG) swimming, diving and modern pentathlon in 2018.

The council last week approved plans for a permanent extension at Tollcross which would provide space for a diving pool.

Lord Coe said: "The Youth Olympic Games is a fresh, exciting young product.

"By entrusting it to Glasgow 2018, the Olympic family will have a historic opportunity to draw on the unprecedented pool of sophisticated event-hosting expertise and global youth engagement programmes in the UK right now.

"We delivered our promises and we achieved our goals at London 2012, and we're ready to continue that partnership with the Olympic family in Glasgow in 2018."

As revealed in the Evening Times last night, city venues will be transformed if the bid to host the YOG 2018 is successful.

The plans show that George Square will be turned into a beach volleyball arena, while the SECC will host events including judo, wrestling, table tennis and boxing.

Glasgow Green would be the venue for road cycling, while the new Emirates Arena will be the venue for badminton and basket- ball.

Shona Robison said Glasgow was the "perfect stage" for YOG 2018.

She said: "Young athletes rightly expect the very best facilities.

"Building on the legacy of London 2012 and the forthcoming 2014 Commonwealth Games, Scotland stands ready to be an exciting, dynamic host of the Youth Olympic Games."

Andrena Hammond is head coach at the City of Glasgow Swim Team, to which Olympic star swimmer Robbie Renwick belongs.

She revealed the swim teams' excitement about the opening of the Acquatics Centre.

She said: "We are really excited about the swimming pool, it's going to be have all the elements and will benefit our swimmers as well as the whole of Glasgow.

"The diving pool is really the final piece in the jigsaw.

"When it opens it will give people the chance to swim in the same pool as the athletes in the Commonwealth Games and hopefully in the Youth Olympics."

"Our young swimmers are some of the best and we hope they will compete in 2018."

The world's best young athletes, aged 15 to 18, will gather to compete in the Youth Olympics.

Glasgow was selected by the British Olympic Association to be the UK's chosen candidate city in February this year.

It faces competition from Buenos Aires, in Argentina, Guadalajara, in Mexico, Medellín, in Colombia and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

The winning city will be announced in July next year.

rachel.loxton@heraldandtimes.co.uk