The world celebrated the International Olympic Day on June 23, which is marked every year on the same day to promote sports and health. In the country, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) - the overall supervising body for the Olympic movement in the country – takes the leading role in development of sports.
Sport has grown in leaps and bounds in the country and the QOC under its President H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani has the lion’s share in the achievements, particularly in recent years.
The role, QOC has been playing in promotion of sports in the country, is not just confined to organisation of major sport events and establishing strong and competitive teams. It also involves the creation of the inspiring programmes and initiatives for younger generations and the broader society as the body continues its best efforts to take country’s sports to new heights as per the Olympic charter.
Human development tops the list of QOC priorities, which is why the body puts its best effort in developing sport performance and engaging athletes from the amateur to the elite level, instilling the Olympic values in their daily lives. To achieve the task, the QOC has started various programmes, targeting both the genders in different age categories, with a focus on younger age groups – school and kindergarten students.
Besides, the QOC is fully aware of its duty and the value of its leading role in the field of sustainable events management, a matter that requires the QOC to organise activities related to the events that will meet the sustainability criteria.
The QOC’s Schools Olympic Program (SOP) – founded in 2007 as a legacy from the Doha 2006 Asian Games - is QOC’s main project for developing sport at a grassroots level. The QOC works in partnership with its national federations to identify talented athletes who have the potential to represent Qatar on the world-stage. The SOP has grown from 7,099 participants in its inaugural season to 26,454 students from 461 schools participating in the last school year.
QOC’s another key initiative is the Qatar’s Athlete Development Pathway (ADP), which is being run in partnership with the Aspire Academy. The ADP, which aims to produce a new generation of Qatari sporting champions, identifies, develops and nurtures talented athletes at every stage of their career.
QOC’s programmes are already giving positive results and are expected to help Qatar in making a significant progress in the near future.
