Dubai: Two years back, the UAE National Olympic Committee (UAE NOC) launched the UAE School Olympic Games under the directives of Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President, UAE NOC. In a couple of years, the UAE NOC has identified sportspersons with talent in the 13 to 14 years age group so as to fulfil the aspirations of a rapidly-progressive nation.
Earlier this year, the UAE NOC went one step ahead with its goal by appointing Shaikh Ahmad Hasher Al Maktoum, the country’s lone Olympic gold medallist so far, to spearhead a high-performance committee of like-minded experts.
Based on the firm belief that the future of UAE sport lies primarily in educating and engaging the community, this panel of experts has had a busy summer with its first specialised training camp for 82 athletes in four disciplines that was held in Rome and Formia.
Leading the high performance committee was its director Wolfgang Thiel of Germany, along with former Olympic champions Saeed Aouita (Morocco), Sergei Matrossian (Ukraine) and Jeong-ho Kim (South Korea) and Ramzi Baltayeb, an expert in biological sciences from Tunisia. Now starts the actual work for these experts as they start identifying genuine talent from this squad of 82 so as to have UAE athletes participating at the top-most level of international sports as Thiel relates:
GULF NEWS: A high-intensity training camp for junior athletes for the first time-ever, I believe that’s a good start and a new beginning for UAE sport?
WOLFGANG THIEL: This camp has been one of the best experiences that I’ve had in my 45 years in sport. For the UAE, this camp was a first step towards meeting the guidelines set in ‘Vision 2021’ laid down by the country’s leaders. I feel we have done the most important thing by just having such a camp for this group of youngsters.
So the future looks bright?
We have breached the initial stage, and the idea next year is to start on a much higher level by putting more expectations from both, the athletes and the coaching staff. One of the main things during our camp in Italy was to instill this belief that we are all working towards a single goal, and that is international sporting glory for the UAE by 2024.
That looks quite a challenging task?
Yes, it can be a challenge. But if we all work together, and not against each other, then it is certainly achievable. In high-level sport it is very essential to see everyone working in one direction with a healthy communication between all staff involved.
At the same time we need to look at ways at improving. Luckily, we have made a very good start and everyone has been clear that we need to stand together and not against each other to fuel the sporting dreams of this country.
What has been the fruit following the conclusion of this camp in Italy?
For sure, we have discovered some promising athletes with special talents. Now we need to work on them and build them up mentally and physically. These athletes need to know and understand the concept of hard work, discipline and the idea of working as a team towards one single common goal. Of course, at this stage, we have narrowed down on say three athletes from this group of 82.
But that is not important at this moment as our primary aim should be to create an environment for these athletes who are willing to take on the load. In short, all of us need to be on the same page. Many of these juniors have been asking us about the next camp and this is a good sign. It means they are willing to put in the hard work and everything else that goes along to being a top-class athlete.
What sort of particular challenges do you foresee?
The next two years will be crucial. Of course, one of the bigger challenges would be to create an understanding in society on the benefits of sports so that we have parents supporting their children and society supporting these athletes at the community level.
At the same time we need to have a proper specialised infrastructure and good coaches who will start building juniors teams who in turn can raise the bar into elite teams. Definitely, all this requires cooperation and coordination from all concerned starting with the UAE NOC, the Government, the Ministry of Education along with the sports associations and federations in the country. The start has been made, and the start has been good.
Is there any country that the UAE is following in this respect?
We have blueprints to learn from several successful sporting countries from across the world. There is the USA, Great Britain and Germany to start with. But we need not entirely follow their structure. We need to only adapt and adopt whatever good things we can as per our conditions here in the UAE.
How do you think the UAE School Olympic Games have helped?
The School Olympics have been the base for this project. Now we need to spread the competition and the spirit of competition within the Emirates.
We need to have challenges before the developing athletes so that they get the opportunity to graduate through these competitions into the national team. Along with this, these athletes need to have the sense of pride of representing the country.
Sports and education have had a close link. How important is it for these youngsters to understand this?
Sports and education are bound together. In fact sport is a solid platform for educating as it teaches timeless values of fairness, hard work, discipline, determination and goal setting. At the same time it is important for the parents to get involved closely in this programme as it is the family that is first needed to start raising an athlete. And it is the entire family and society that will be needed to fulfil the Olympic dream of the UAE.
