Sports Programme

The focus of Aspire Academy’s Sport Programme is on fencing, squash, table tennis and ten different disciplines in athletics.

Over four Olympic Games’ cycles, Aspire has become one the world’s leading high-performance academies. We have developed pipeline of young elite athletes with a great potential that has boosted Qatar’s medal prospects at major events such as Olympic Games and World Championships.

Our first graduate to compete at an Olympics was Mutaz Essa Barshim at the London games in 2012. He was initially awarded a bronze medal in the high jump but this was later upgraded to silver after gold medallist Ivan Ukhov was stripped of the gold for failing a doping test. Four years later in Rio there were four Aspire Academy graduates with Barshim once again shining as he won another silver in the high jump. At Tokyo 2020 there were 4 graduates from the academy and this time Barshim claimed the ultimate prize and took gold. Our aim is to continue this success and have even more graduates at the 2024 games in Paris.

Barshim has also enjoyed success at the World Championships winning gold in 2017, 2019 and 2022.

In Squash graduate Abdulla Al-Tamimi achieved a ranking of 23 in the world in Nov 2018 the highest ever by a Qatari. Graduates and students in our other core sports have been able to compete at major events both globally and regionally.
Despite the limited number of people Aspire Academy can chose from we continue to identify those with potential and give them all the tools necessary in order to achieve success. Aspire Academy is proof that Qatar has the capacity to be a successful sporting nation.

Sports Science

Athletics

Fencing

Squash

Table Tennis

Federation Sports

Elite Athlete Scholarship Programme