THE next Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Matthew Mitcham might have descended on Sydney for the fifth Australian Youth Olympic Festival, which opened last night.

Leading out the 600 Australian athletes and officials was Ryan Tyack, 17, who took up archery in 2001 at the urging of his mother, when she despaired at his obsession with computer games. He has since become a world junior champion.

"I just sat around playing Age of Empires all the time and my mum wanted me to do a sport and meet some kids," Tyack said. "So I chose either fencing or archery as Age Of Empires had swordsmen and archers," he said.