Doha: Plans are under way as the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and the Supreme Education Counci (SEC) prepare to launch the seventh edition of the Schools Olympic Program (SOP) under the theme ‘Sport and Integrity’ on Wednesday, September 25.
SOP is a pioneer idea that came in response to the prestigious initiative of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is also the President of QOC, in an attempt to link sports activities with others, besides encouraging school students to practise sport as an integral part of their daily life.
SOP is a pioneering sport program inspired and staged by Qatar since six years ago, which has received an overwhelming response from all entities of the country and has now become an annual sport event supervised by QOC along with other permanent partners.
In a detailed article published in ‘Qatar Sport Magazine’ recently, Mohammed Hajaj Al Shahwani, the Deputy-Chairman of International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), outlined the valuable objectives and the productive role of ICCS in protecting youth and new generation.
Al Shahwani said: “Speaking as a fellow sports industry professional, an avid fan and a passionate advocate of the positive values that sport can instil in young people, it saddens me when I continue to see the news dominated by the selfish and inexcusable behaviour of the minority of athletes that so many aspiring athletes look up to as role models.”
He added: “At the ICSS, we believe that early education is crucial in ensuring integrity in sport. In the same way that youngsters are educated about drugs and alcohol in relation to their sporting career, the same should be true for integrity.”
“But whilst many organisations now provide integrity programmes for professional athletes, the same cannot be said for young athletes on the pathway to emulating their sporting heroes. At present, the lack of integrity education for youth is a gaping black-hole in sport globally.
“Rarely do you hear of athletes having the awareness, and confidence, to report instances of doping and approaches by fixers. This is an area in which many organisations in sport must improve. They must educate their young athletes to recognise, resist and report an awkward or distressing experience surrounding Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) or an approach by a potential match fixer,” he said.
Al Shahwani added: “This is why the ICSS, in partnership with the QOC, have created ‘Save the Dream’, a new initiative that aims to educate young people about sporting integrity and promote positive messages around sport and its character- building values. It is my hope that ‘Save the Dream’ will become a powerful instrument to protect the next generation of athletes and sports stars around the world for years to come.”
THE PENINSULA
