02 Sep 2019
Doha, 2 September 2019. During his current stay in Qatar, Michael Rowland Stanley, who has been serving as President of the New Zealand Olympic Committee for 10 years, used the chance to visit Aspire Academy on Sunday, September 1, to discuss opportunities for future collaboration with Director General Ivan Bravo.
After a comprehensive tour, that was led by Aspire Academy Director of Sport, Markus Egger and included AZF Business Development Executive, Fahad Abdulla Al-Suwaidi and Mohammed Khalifa J M Al Mosallam, AZF Business Development and Intelligence Senior Specialist, Mr. Stanley expressed his admiration of Qatar’s national sport academy. “I have travelled a lot and seen many places but Aspire is truly unique. The philosophy of combining sport and education under one roof combined with exceptional facilities and international know-how is really impressive and is definitely enabling these young Qatari athletes to thrive.”
Born on 6 November 1957 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Michael Rowland Stanley took up the sport of rowing and represented New Zealand from 1976 until 1984. He was a member of the rowing eight which came fourth at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was also part of the rowing eight which won back-to-back world championship gold medals, in 1982 and 1983. He was selected for the New Zealand men's coxed four to race at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games but did not get to compete because of the boycott. He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
From 1994 to 2003 Mike was Chief Executive of Rowing New Zealand (RNZ). In 2003, he became Chief Executive of the Millennium Institute of Sport and Health, but he kept his links to Rowing NZ as a member of its board; a role he held until 2009. He was elected to the Board of the New Zealand Olympic Committee in 2005 and took over the position of President in 2009.