Abu Dhabi: The Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony being held here at the Emirates Palace Wednesday night is a huge boost to the UAE and the region and will inspire young people to take up sport, according to the chairman of the awards.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Edwin Moses, chairman of the Laureus World Sports Awards and arguably the greatest hurdler the world has ever produced, said: "Abu Dhabi is the fifth city in the last ten years to stage this Awards ceremony which is now truly growing in stature.
"Holding the Awards here in Abu Dhabi gives a boost to the UAE and the entire Gulf region. We want to inspire the youth and the athletes from this region," said the American, who was unbeaten for nine years, nine months and nine days in 122 400-metres hurdles' races.
Social change
"We want to use sport as a tool for social change. We started with about a million dollars a year that we knew was coming but our turnover has multiplied tremendously, particularly in the last three years," Moses said.
"Starting with six projects in four countries, we have 72 projects in 38 countries. We now have nine Foundations spread out all over the world. We have made a fantastic organisation from an initial idea. We were 28 people in the room initially, now we have 46 and the Foundation is growing in many, many ways."
Mohammad Ebrahim Mahmoud, Secretary-General of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, said: "We are glad to have this international event in Abu Dhabi. It is very important to us.
"Abu Dhabi has hosted a lot of world class sports events. We want to go further and work harder to make Abu Dhabi a prime destination for sports and tourism.
"We want to encourage young people and make them achieve big things in sport. We in Abu Dhabi will work hard to encourage young people to take up sport."
We hope that someday, an Emirati will achieve this award," he added.
