1.  Brief outline of the history of sports in Qatar in modern times, i.e. 19th and / or 20th century.

Archaeological evidence of settlement on the peninsula that is today Qatar date back to about 8,000 BC. No evidence could be found on historical culture of sports in Qatar from that date to the 20th Century.

In the 16th century, Qatar entered into pacts first with the Turks, which massive Ottoman Empire  swept across the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. Beside some physical exercise, considered as a necessity to be fit to face invaders, no real sport and physical fitness were practised.

In the 20th century, the main aim of Qatar was to obtain independence. This became possible after oil was found in the Western City of Dukhan in 1935. More and more the country evolved from a nomad structure to a settled structure and more and more the country and its citizens became wealthy. It lasted until 1971 when Qatar became independent and from that date onward the development of sport, physical education, physical recreation and fitness boomed.

Qatar is currently playing an increasingly prominent and effective role in the field of sport. Qatar is using sport as a reason to forge friendship and to enhance the relations with nations worldwide.

Qatar has expressed the wish to be active around the world as an outward looking state dedicated to the improvement of relations between nations through sport.

2. The sports heritage – historical and traditional sports, games and pastimes.

Here are some pictures about the traditional games that the children used to play in older time.

3.Some illustrations from traditional paintings and / or sculpture depicting traditional sports and games.

The illustrations are currently not available. We are however in close contact with the National Museum and if such becomes available, we will transmit a colour copy.

4.Sports as it is organised in Qatar today.

The Qatar Olympic Committee's role is to make access to sport and physical recreation available to men, women and young people in the country, fostering harmonious development in the true Olympic spirit and in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

The QOC is the overall supervision body for all the sport activities and events in Qatar. Within this structure, QOC is providing a solid financial basis for the realisation of the professional plans, activities and major sport events held in The State Qatar. This role puts QOC on the top of the imagination of the local community when one speaks about sport.

List of the National Sports Federation in Qatar

OLYMPIC SUMMER SPORTS FEDERATIONS

Qatar has National Sports Federations in 21 out of the 28 Olympic Summer Sports Federations.

1.   ARCHERY: Qatar Shooting and Archery Federation

2.   ATHLETICS: Qatar Athletics Federation

3.   BASKETBALL: Qatar Basketball Federation

4.   BOXING: Qatar Boxing Federation

5.   CYCLING: Qatar Cycling Federation

6.   EQUESTRIAN: Qatar Equestrian Federation

7.   FENCING: Qatar Fencing Federation

8.   FOOTBALL: Qatar Football Association

9.   GYMNASTICS: Qatar Gymnastics Federation

10. HANDBALL: Qatar Handball Federation

11. JUDO: Qatar Judo Federation

12. ROWING: Qatar Sailing and Rowing Federation

13. SAILING: Qatar Sailing and Rowing Federation

14. SHOOTING: Qatar Shooting and Archery Federation

15. SWIMMING: Qatar Swimming Federation

16. TABLE TENNIS: Qatar Table Tennis Federation

17. TAEKWONDO: Qatar Taekwondo and Karate Federation

18. TENNIS: Qatar Tennis Federation

19. VOLLEYBALL: Qatar Volleyball Federation

20. WEIGHTLIFTING: Qatar Weightlifting and Body Building Federation

21. WRESTLING: Qatar Wrestling Federation

Currently there are no federations that cover the following Olympic Summer Sports: Badminton, Baseball, Canoe-Kayak, Hockey, Modern Pentathlon, Softball and Triathlon.

OLYMPIC WINTER SPORTS FEDERATIONS

Qatar has no National Sports Federations covering one of the 7 Olympic Winter Sports Federations.

RECOGNISED INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS BY THE IOC

Qatar has National Sports Federations in 10 out of the 28 Olympic Recognised Sports Federations.

AUTOMOBILE: Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation

BOWLING: Qatar Bowling Federation

CUE SPORTS: Qatar Billiard and Snooker Fed.

CHESS: Qatar Chess Federation

GOLF: Qatar Golf Federation

KARATE: Qatar Taekwondo and Karate Federation

LIFESAVING: Qatar Swimming Federation

MOTORBIKE: Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation

SQUASH: Qatar Squash Federation

WATERSKI: Qatar Marine Sport Federation

OTHER SPORTS FEDERATIONS

BODY BUILDING: Qatar Weightlifting and Body Building Federation

POWERBOATING: Qatar Marine Sports Federation

MILITARY SPORTS: Qatar Military Sports Federation

HANDICAPPED SPORTS: Qatar Handicapped Sports Fed.

WOMEN SPORTS: Qatar Women Sport Committee

Sports Clubs in Qatar

The practice of organised sports in Qatar originated in the 1940's. Sports in Qatar was first introduced by the early Oil company workers. These workers, mainly Europeans and Asians, used to practise sports such as football, cricket, tennis, golf, etc.. Some of the Qatari workers started playing with the expatriates and soon football became very popular amongst them. Gradually, the Qatari started to form football teams in their own residential areas (furjan) and started competitions amongst themselves. Gradually, the football teams were transformed into more professional multi-sports clubs.

The first club ever established in Qatar was called "Itihad Al-Arab" and was established in 1948 in Dukhan on the West Coast of Qatar. In 1950, "Al-Ahli", the first club was created in Doha. Between 1950 and 1980, many clubs were established in Doha as follows:

Al-Najah (1950), Al-Nahdah (1951), Al-Tahreer (1952), Al-Wuhdah (1957), Al-Mareef (1957), Al-Urubah (1959), Al-Ahrar (1961), Al-Tadamon (1979). Al-Wakrah (1959) and Al-Taawon (1961) were established outside of Doha in the cities of Wakrah and Al-Khor respectively.

Through the times, some clubs disappeared and some other amalgamated to form the present existing clubs. Most of the clubs evolved from football clubs in the beginning into multi-sports clubs offering a variety of sports to their members.

List of Sport Clubs

Al-Sadd Sports Club

Al-Arabi Sports Club

Al-Gharafa Sports Club

Al-Rayyan Sports Club

Al-Shamaal Sports Club

Al-Khor Sports Club

Al-Wakrah Sports Club

Qatar Sports Club

Al-Etifaq Sports Club

Al-Hilal Sports Club

Al-Sailiya Sports Club

Al-Shoalah Sports Club

Al-Tadamon Sports Club

Al-Nasser Sports Club

Al-Shabab Sports Club

Al-Ahli Sports Club

5.Special sporting prowess and achievements, popularity of certain sports, sports leaders ‘heroes’, etc.

H.R.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani elected as IOC Member

H.R.H. Sheik Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Heir Apparent and the President of the Qatar Olympic Committee has been elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee in January 2002, in Salt Lake City. His commitment and enthusiasm towards the sport in general an especially in Qatar will boost the development of sport in the country.

Mohamed Ahmed Sulaiman – Barcelona, 1992

Mohamed Ahmed  SULAIMAN astonished all by winning the Bronze Medal in the 1992 Barcelona Games in the 1500 m event.

1500m Final Barcelona: 1- Firmin Cacho (ESP) 2- El Basir Rashid (MAR) 3 – Mohammed Sulaiman (QAT)

Said S.  Asaad – Sydney, 2000

In the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Qatar’s delegation grew to 4 participating Sports: Athletics, Shooting, Table Tennis and Weight Lifting. The latter brought glory again to Qatar as Said S. Asaad won a Bronze Medal in the + 105 kg category.

6.The Olympic Movement in Qatar, its origin and development, existing bodies, story of participation in Olympics, achievements, medal tallies, etc.

HIGHLIGHTS ON QATAR'S PARTICIPATIONS IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES 

Qatar began its participations in the Olympic Games since the Montreal 1976. It was only through an official administrative delegation and in latter Olympic Games the rate of participations developed gradually. Bellow is a view on Qatar's participations in the Olympic Games Events.

Athletics: Majed Saeed Sultan (800 m), Abdulrahman Suleiman (1.500 m), Sultan Khamis Zaman (5.000 m), Abdulla Khamis Saifeldin (3.000 m steeple), Musa Obaid Amer (3.000 m steeple), Jaber Ahmad Juma (marathon), Abdulrahman Al-Nubi (long jump), Ibrahim M. Aboubaker (triple jump), Khaled Habash Al-Suwaidi (shot put) and Ahmad Hassan Moussa (decathlon). Mussa Obaid Amer was able to get the 4th place in this very high level race behind three of his Kenyan opponents.

Shooting: Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (skeet) and Rashid Al-Athba (sounle trap) participated in the competition. Nasser Saleh A-Attiyah has again proved his talent in this discipline, getting the 4th place in the shoot out system in the final. This was one of the two best ranking achieved during this edition of the Olympic Games.

Weightlifting: three competitors were registered, but only two of them were able to start: Nader Sufyan Abbas (77 kg), and Said Saad Asaad (105 kg). In the weight category +105 kg, Jaber Saeed Salem could not participate due to unexpected medical problems.

Swimming: Samer Annas (400 freestyle) represented Qatar in Athens. He surpassed his personal best result in the right moment, which was enough fro qualifying him to the last 10 segment of the 47 participant’s event. The overall swimming competition showed to be the best ever seen in the history of the Olympic Games.

Originally, in the State of Qatar the Qatar University was responsible for the education programmes in higher level, including the physical education programmes as well. In the arch of the development of this discipline, the Qatar University Management has reviewed in 2004 the overall structure and curriculum of the university.

As a result of this work, a new structure and curriculum took place and was affected from September 2004. The Qatar University was granted in this time with financial and administrative autonomy. Under this new organisational structure, the university will be administered by a Board of Regents and the university president. As the next part of the development process, the university will adopt uniform criteria for admission in the academic year 2006-07 fro both full-time and part-time students. Some programme, like the physical education shall require additional criteria.

ASPIRE is Qatar's visionary Sports Academy, which was launched in September 2004.

The Academy will discover the best young sporting talent from the region and around the world, and make them world class. With state-of-the-art facilities and world-class sports programmes, it will turn hopefuls into winners at the highest levels of international competition.

The Academy will also integrate this training with an intensive, comprehensive intellectual education, giving them all the support they need to succeed.

All ASPIRE's departments work together to create the perfect environ¬ment for the student. As they strive towards the same goals, their harmonious, progressive interaction gives the students exactly the sort of atmosphere and support they need to thrive.

The four departments are Sports, QESA, IT, and Marketing. Individually, playing vital roles within the structure of ASPIRE. But together, collaboration is the name of the game, with each department complementing the next for the overall benefit of ASPIRE's students, their parents, the faculty, and the community.

The Qatar Olympic Committee has a solid education programme coordinated by the Leaders Preparation Department, which are run all year long. These programmes are specifically designed for the present employees working in the different departments of the Qatar  Olympic Committee and national sport federation. The lectures are coming from all around the world, representing the highest level of their field of expertise.

Additionally to this, the Qatar Olympic Committee, which is the most important place of work for the future graduates, has a close collaboration with the Qatar University, and closely with the department of physical education. The Qatar Olympic Committee runs short sport management programmes together with the University for developing the professional knowledge of those selected student, who might be able to take important management positions in one of the working units of the Qatar Olympic Committee.

8.  The Vision for the Future.

The Qatar Olympic Committee is willing to provide the best possible circumstances for the competitors representing the State of Qatar in international events. The main goal is that all the participating sportsmen and women shall perform in the highest level possible achieving their personal best results, national records in sports and events in which they compete.

The multisport games, especially the Olympic Games are the perfect scene where these individuals are able to show to the international sports community and the Olympic Movement their strength and skills as well as development in the field of sport founded in Qatar.

Beside the Olympic Games, the participation in the Arab Games, the Asian Games and the West Asian Games are the high priorities. The Next edition of the Asian Games will be organised in Doha in 2006.

The year 2000 marked a new and exciting era for the city of Doha. After competing with a number of Asian cities to host the 15th Asian Games, Doha succeeded in gaining the majority of votes, becoming the first city in its region and only the second in West Asia after Iran in 1974 to hold this prestigious international event.

Shortly thereafter, the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee (DAGOC) was established chaired by the Heir Apparent of Qatar, His Royal Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad AI-Thani. The Asian Games are the second largest international sporting event after the International Summer Olympic Games. It brings together countries from all over Asia. Doha will organise the biggest gathering ever with 40 sports from which some are traditional Asian sports.

The 1st Asian Games took place in New Delhi in 1951 and welcomed 11 countries participating in just six sports.

Now, 55 years later, the 15th Doha Asian Games 2006 are expecting 45 different countries who will participate in 40 sports. The number of women athletes has been steadily rising over the years and Qatar expects around 2.000 female athletes in 2006. DAGOC amazed spectators at the 14th Asian Games 2002 in Busan, Korea, by organising a display of cultural exhibits. A Qatari dance troupe consisting of 24 boys and girls participated in the ceremonies that took place over the course of the fortnight. A cultural day was planned to showcase the traditions and heritage of Qatari society. This included a henna tattoo artist adorning eager visitors with delicate designs.

Alongside the Doha Asian Games, a youth camp is also expected to take place, to unite the youths of Asia. It will be held a week prior to the commencement of Doha 2006 and will demonstrate the breadth of Qatari sport and culture. The aim of the camp is to enhance friendship, love and understanding in order to promote cooperation among the children of Asia. The youth camp will be held at the Sea Line Beach Resort in Umm Said, a 45-minute drive from the city of Doha.

The Games are set to take place from 1-15 December 2006 and DAGOC is diligently working to use every minute of the time left. Around 30 sports facilities will accommodate the athletes' requirements, 14 multipurpose stadiums are already scattered around Doha and are being refurbished to meet the demands.

With a budget of US$2.8 billion being invested to turn the region's sporting capital into one of the most modern sporting cities in the world work has started on constructing the Khalifa Sports City. This will include the outstanding 50,000-seater Khalifa Stadium, an Olympic standard aquatic centre and a massive indoor sports hall. The pioneering Academy Indoor Hall with 250-metre clear span dome will cover a full-size football stadium for 6,000 spectators, a second 5,000 seat arena, plus extensive training and administration facilities.

An Athlete's Village is being built to house the different nationalities, religions and races of the athletes and officials coming to Doha. The village will be located in the centre of Doha, adjacent to Hamad Hospital and is easily accessible to all the sports venues. Around 10,000 athletes and officials will stay in the Village during the Asian Games and will be able to take advantage of the shopping facilities, telecommunications systems, training sites, informational services, and recreational areas comprised there. The village is expected to be finished by the end of 2005 and planners have designed it so that it can be converted into a state of the art medical facility at the end of the Asian Games 2006.

Although Qatar is one of the safest countries on the planet, security for the Doha Asian Games will be planned and executed to the highest standards, without infringing on people's freedom. The State of Qatar has gained vast experience and a great reputation for providing security to major international, continental and regional events held in the country and this knowledge shall be carried forth towards ensuring Doha 2006 is a secure and safe environment.

Around 5,000 media organisations, journalists and accredited broadcasters are expected to cover the Doha Asian Games 2006. Television and radio transmission, both live and recorded will be broadcast from the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC). Print media representatives will be publishing and distributing all the event information from the Main Press Centre (MPC). Both the IBC and (MPC) will be set up by DAGOC at the Qatar International Exhibition Centre.

April 2004 saw the launch of the Doha Asian Games 2006 logo and corporate identity. The logo portrays the environment of the host city and projects its natural treasures. The shape of the logo signifies an athlete in motion: one who takes on challenges and defeats all obstacles in his/her way. The colours used in the logo pertain to Qatar, with the yellow depicting the famous crescent shaped sand dunes of the desert and the blue reflecting the calm blue sea of the Arabian Gulf. The sun represents the warm spirit of Asia. The corporate identity reflects the dichotomy of Doha as being a modern city flourishing in its growth, while still adhering to its cultural traditions and beliefs. It also gives a glimpse into what to expect in Doha 2006, a rich mixture of ethnic excellence and skilful sport.