23 Feb 2017
Doha, 23 February 2017. A group of young talented athletes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are in Qatar for a training camp at Aspire Academy that runs for week until 25th February 2017. The seven athletes are from disadvantaged backgrounds in Rio and were selected from about 200 athletes from an Athletics tournament called SHINE that was held by The Qatar Olympic Committee in May 2016 in Rio. Aspire Academy’s deputy Director of Sport, Dr Hazem Fareed and Mohammed Jassim Al Kuwari, the former Secretary General at Qatar Athletics Federation, selected the winners who would be given the opportunity to travel to Qatar for a training camp at Aspire Academy with access to world class facilities and some of the world’s top athletics coaches.
The SHINE project is a partnership between the QOC, Qatar Athletics Federation, Aspire Academy, Rio de Janeiro Athletics Federation and "Futuro Olimpico" and all parties have worked on organizing this training camp as part of QOC Legacy of spreading the Olympic spirit far and wide and touching the lives of people from around the world.
Brazil’s Olympic bronze medalist from Atlanta ‘96, Arnaldo de Oliveira Silva is the founder of "Futuro Olimpico", an NGO that has been working with the young disadvantaged athletes back in Brazil. Arnaldo de Oliveira doubles as coach of the athletes has accompanied them to Qatar. He believes the athletes will benefit tremendously from the specialised coaching and sports science support, “This is the best thing these athletes have experienced and they are very grateful to Qatar for this chance. We have a lot to gain from training at Aspire Academy and yes these athletes are talented and can go far but before they think of being at the Olympics they need to work hard to make the qualification and coming on this training camp with such wonderful facilities will certainly inspire them to pursue their goals,” said Arnaldo de Oliveira Silva
"Futuro Olimpico" was founded in 2007 with the goal of taking athletics to students at Rio de Janeiro’s public schools. Currently around 200 students participate in the project, which offers them support not only on sports matters but also provides them with education, medical, social, and psychological assistance.
And many of the athletes – who competed across 24 different events – showed real Olympic potential, like Gabriel Oliveira Constantino who ran the men’s 100m and finished with a time just 31-hundredths of a second short of the Olympic qualification time at 10.47. “I was not favourite for a place on this trip to Qatar because l am mainly a 110m hurdler but l entered for the 100m sprint and pleased that results went my way and l was selected. Aspire Academy is an excellent place to train and one can see why Qatar’s Olympic medalist Mutaz Barshim has excelled coming from a base and background like Aspire Academy,” said Gabriel Oliveira Constantino.