Though he returned home without the medal he sought, Brandon Sanders hardly returned to Columbia empty–handed.

The Dreher High School junior brought home from the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore three weeks worth of memories and photos, dozens of new social media friends and followers, and numerous additions to his cell phone and email contact list.

“I still haven’t grasped that I was in Singapore for three weeks; it was an amazing experience,” Sanders said of his first trip outside the United States. “I made friends with athletes from Bermuda, Great Britain, Nigeria, and more. In the athletes’ village, we met people from all over. I went on the trip wanting to explore new things, and I did.”

One of those new things was international level competition in the 200–meters.

“I made a mistake in the preliminaries and ran like I was running in the U.S., and I ended up on the bubble of making the final,” Sanders said. “I have to get used to running prelims like finals. Once in the final, I wasn’t worried about place; I was running for fun. When I crossed the line, I was smiling wide because it was a fun experience.”

Sanders, the youngest participant in the final (the Youth Olympics are for 16 and 17–yea–olds), finished fourth (21.44) behind China’s Zhenye Xie (21.22), Japan’s Keisuke Homma (21.27), and Germany’s Patrick Domogala (21.36). He is already looking forward to a rematch with the quartet.

“When I meet up with those people again, it will be a different story,” Sanders said. “I’ll look at them differently. I’ll go into the races with a different mindset, and I’ll race differently.”

One thing he will do the same is take advantage of the outside–of– competition opportunities. In between trading pins and spending time exploring the booths of other nations, Sanders toured the city, visited several tourist sites and even found a McDonalds.”

He also spent time with his father, Gregory, who made the trip, and Dreher track coach Daniel Brooks, who surprised the younger Sanders by traveling to Singapore. Sanders’ mother, Barbie, was unable to make the trip.

“A lot of the parents of people on the U.S. team came, so we had people there supporting all of us,” Sanders said.

“The whole U.S. team hung out; we had a party (TV ) room, and everyone would come in,” Sanders said. “Plus, the U.S. team was definitely the most friendly. We talked to everybody and invited them to the party room.”

That camaraderie didn’t end with the competition.

“When we left Singapore, it was like family saying good–bye,” Sanders said. “A lot of people cried. But, just because the event is over doesn’t mean we aren’t going to talk. I talked to one teammate on Tuesday morning before school. And everyone is going to the Nike Indoor (in Boston in mid- March), whether we are running in it or not.”