31 Jul 2016
Rio, 31 July 2016. The 2016 Olympic Games are just a few days away and from August 5-21 Rio de Janeiro will turn into the stage of the world’s best athletes. Rio 2016 will be the 31st Summer Olympic Games since the modern Olympic Games started in Athens 1896. For Qatar it’s the 9th participation – their Olympic debut took place at the Los Angeles edition in 1984. Let’s take a look at the upcoming Games and Qatar’s team for Rio.
Rio is the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. These will also be the first games to be held in a Portuguese-speaking country, the first to be held entirely during the host country's winter season. The program features 28 sports including the introduction of Rugby Sevens and the return of Golf. 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees are competing for a total of 306 medals. The events are taking place in 32 competition venues in Rio, as well as, in the case of football, five other cities around Brazil. This edition will feature Kosovo and South Sudan for the first time.
The Qatari Olympic mission comprises 38 athletes representing 10 sports federations including Athletics, Handball, Shooting, Equestrian, Boxing, Beach Volleyball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Judo and Weightlifting federations. This team also includes four graduates of Aspire Academy namely, Mutaz Barshim, Ashraf Elseify, Abubaker Haydar and Ahmad Bedair. All four are part of the Athletics teams and compete in high jump, hammer throwing, 800m and javelin throwing respectively.
The Qatar Olympic Committee was formed in 1979 and recognized by the IOC in 1980. Qatar has so far won 4 bronze medals, these being, Mohammed Suleiman in Athletics Men’s 1500m during 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Said Saif Asaad in Men’s Weightlifting 105kg at 2000 Sydney Olympics. The country’s third and fourth medals were won in London at the 2012 Olympics by Nasser Al-Attiyah in Men’s Shooting Skeet and Mutaz Essa Barshim for Athletics, Men’s High Jump.
The list of the Qatari athletes to compete in Rio Olympics includes:
Athletics
Mutaz Barshim, Femi Ogunode, Musaeb Balla, Abdalelah Haroun, Mohamed al-Garni, Abubaker Haydar, Ahmad Bedair , Ashraf Elseify and Dalal Al Harith
Equestrian Team
Sheikh Ali bin Khalid Al-Thani, Bassem Hassan Mohammed, Ali Al-Rumaihi, Khalid Al-Emadi, Faleh Al-Ajmi and Hamad Al-Attiyah.
Handball Team
Qatar Beach Volleyball Team
Swimming
Noah Al-Khulaifi and Nada Arakji
Shooting
Nasser Al-Attiyah and Rashid Hamed Al-Athba
Judo
Morad Zemouri
Table Tennis
Lei Ping
Weightlifting
Faris Ibrahim
Boxing
Hakan Erseker
Thulasi Tharumalingam
Find out more on: http://www.olympic.qa/en/Pages/default.aspx