Michael Phelps, Rafael Nadal, Asafa Powell in Youtube Challenge

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Michael Phelps - Speed Putting

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sourced by Sudha Krishna

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  Created by Sudha Krishna | add comment

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  Created by Sudha Krishna | add comment

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  Created by Sudha Krishna | add comment

It could be a sign that the International Olympic Committe is looking for newer and younger audiences as it launches an Olympic Challenge with Youtube.

The Youtube challenge to users, leverages Olympic athletes like multiple goal medalist Michael Phelps, tennis superstar Rafael Nadal, and the world's fastest man Asafa Powell.

Each of their Olympic athletes has a challenge video, to participate, user viedotape and upload their response to challenge to demonstrate if they can beat the Olympian.

In Michael Phelps case it is a 12 foot putting challenge

With Rafael Nadal it is picking  up tennis balls and with Bolt it is balancing a stick on your foot.

There are prizes to be won, with the big prize being a trip to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

All of this is happening with the co-operation of the International Olympic Committee so it looks like the tradition bound organziation is looking to social media to expand its audience. The average age of the TV viewing audiences for the Olympics has steadily increased.

According to a marketing analysis of the Torino 2006 games the single biggest demographic was 65 and up with over 20 percent, the 35-54 sat 29 percent of the viewing audience, the 16-24, and the 24-34 both hovered around 10 percent.

Clearly, while the athletes who compete may be young the audiences that watch them on televisions getting older which could explain why the IOC and Youtube are joining forces for this Olympic Challenge competition.

Clearly