Dubai: Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was the eldest son of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. He was born on November 12, 1981.
Shaikh Rashid completed his schooling in the UAE, and graduated from Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy in 2001.
He was appointed President of the Dubai Cultural and Sports Club in 1997. During this time he visited the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne where he met Francois Carrard, IOC Director General, and discussed ways to make the UAE one of the training centres of international sports. He held the post of the president of the UAE National Olympic Committee from 2008 to 2009.
Shaikh Rashid was a sports enthusiast and used to play football for Dubai Club. He was also president of the Dubai Club. He took part in many endurance rides and won several races, including the 120km Pyramids International Endurance Championship at the Giza pyramids in Egypt. He won the individual gold in the 2001 edition held in Peruggia, Italy. He shared the top spot in the FEI Emirates Endurance Worldwide Ranking in 2003.
Shaikh Rashid won the individual gold in the 120-km endurance ride at the 15th Asian Games held in Doha in 2006. He was also a part of the winning team with his brothers at the same event.
Rashid Bin Mohammad: Life in pictures (Click below)
Shaikh Rashid owned many race horses and won prestigious races. He also owned Zabeel Stables. With his strong string of horses, he won the UAE Owner's Championship consecutively from 2000-2005.
Shaikh Rashid was the lead campaigner of Dubai Cares, when it was launched in 2007. He reiterated: “Educating children can have a very real impact on all our lives” while appealing to the retail sector during the campaign. "Our futures and our own children's futures are linked to what happens in the rest of the world. Through the education that Dubai Cares intends to provide, we may well lay the foundations that will provide a scientist, sometime in the future, whose work will save your or my grandchildren from death and disease," he said. A shirt worn by Shaikh Rashid fetched a mammoth Dh16 million for Dubai Cares at a charity auction.
Compiled by Abdul Kareem, Head of Archives
