DOHA: The Qatari capital will bid for the Olympic Games again, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said yesterday.
Sheikh Saoud, (pictured) Secretary General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), however, said Doha was yet to decide which summer Games it will bid for.
The next Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, while the 2020 edition will be hosted by Tokyo. The last edition was staged in London in 2012.
“On January 15, the International Olympic Committee had sent a circular to all NOCs asking the members to decide for the Olympic bidding by September. So there is still time and everybody will know about our interest for the 2024 Olympics,” Sheikh Saoud said yesterday.
“Qatar had showed interest for the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. The commitment that Qatar had for the world championships in the past will continue in future as well,” he said.
“In the last few years, we have hosted several world championships. Many more are lined up now. The World Boxing Championship will be held later this year. Then we have the World Road Cycling Race Championship. This will be followed by the World Athletics Championships in 2019,” he said.
“It is not a matter of Qatar wanting to bid for the Olympics or not. But it is a time when Qatar has to decide when to go for it. No decision has been made about the 2024 Olympic bidding as yet,” he added.
He said the decision will be made soon.
“We don’t know if we are going to bid for ‘24 (2024), but bidding for the Olympics it will be, I mean, either ’24, ’28 or ’32,” Sheikh Saoud said. “But for the ’24 we have not made the decision yet. The decision will hopefully be before September,” he added.
Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the bidding process for the 2024 Summer Games by asking its member states to submit their interest by September this year.
Italian capital Rome and American city Boston have already confirmed their interest, with quite a few other cities expected to join the list of contenders.
Germany is expected to enter the race through Berlin or Hamburg. Other interested cities include Durban in South Africa, Istanbul and Paris.
Once Qatar makes its bid official, it would be the third time Doha would be attempting to bring the Olympic Games to the Middle East.
Doha lost the 2016 and 2020 Summer Games bids.
Asked if a bid was “inevitable” and just a matter of timing, Sheikh Saoud responded: “Exactly.”
Doha, host of the 2006 Asian Games, clearly dominates the region with its long list of top sports events.
These include MotoGP’s season-opening races, ATP and WTA Tour events, the Qatar Masters golf event sanctioned by the European Tour and the Tour of Qatar cycling races staged every season. The FINA world championships (short distance) and Gymnastics World Cup legs are also part of the QOC sports calendar. Doha also houses the world’s largest indoor sports facility at Aspire Academy besides running the world famous sports hospital Aspetar. In December 2012, Doha added the Anti-Doping Laboratory Qatar to its sports infrastructure.
Doha is set to stage the boxing world championships in October this year and the UCI World Road Championship at the end of 2016. Last May, Doha was awarded the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, which will be staged in 2018. In 2019, Qatar will host the IAAF World Athletics Championships before turning its attention to the 2021 Confederation Cup in the build-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
THE PENINSULA
