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Courtesy
of Aspire
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Dr. Thomas Flock,
Director General, Aspire
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With the motto "Aspire today, inspire tomorrow",
the Aspire Academy of Sports Excellence was launched
in September 2004. As the vision of HH Sheikh Jassim
bin Hamad Al-Thani, the eldest son of the Emir,
HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Aspire Academy
is an elite sports educational institute commissioned
by the State of Qatar to identify promising student-athletes
and develop them into Olympic champions.
Dr. Thomas Flock, director general of Aspire, said,
"The Academy itself is just one part of the
immense sporting vision of Qatar. With the mission
to establish Aspire as an elite sports institute
developing exceptional athletes, it clearly reflects
the country’s ambition to gain success on the
world’s sporting stage with the best talent
the country can offer."
Utilizing the expertise of renowned coaches and
highly skilled exercise physiologists, Aspire provides
training in soccer, track, swimming, gymnastics,
fencing, and table tennis, as well as on-site schooling
and dormitory housing. Aspire accommodates student-athletes
aged 11 to 13 and will soon take on more age groups
as the academy prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympics
and other international competitions.
"Our goal is to identify, develop, educate
and train homegrown elite athletes to compete in
sports at the highest levels. We have a unique talent
identification program, which assesses children
from the age of 11 in schools across the country,
selecting the very best for scholarship to the academy,"
said Dr. Flock.
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Courtesy
of Aspire
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Athletes training at Aspire
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Last November, Aspire unveiled the crown jewel
of its sprawling campus, the world’s largest
sports-only dome. It is a staggering 1 million square
foot structure which houses under its giant roof:
a full-sized artificial grass football field and
five-a-side version, a 200 meter running track,
an Olympic-size swimming pool and diving pool, a
gymnastics hall, 13 table-tennis courts, 3 contact
sports mats, 8 fencing strips and 2 squash courts.
Servicing these facilities will be state-of-the-art
sports science labs offering student athletes at
Aspire the latest training developments, including
high altitude training, movement analysis, sports
psychology, sports equipment and mechanical and
electronic workshops.
The Aspire Academy itself is a unique institution
that is charged with harnessing the athletic potential
of Qatar’s youth and producing sports champions
out of them. To effectively undertake this task,
Aspire instituted a talent identification program
last year that examined Qatari boys ages 8-10 to
determine their physical and their mental potential.
This produced a sporting elite who were invited
to be the first class of inductees into the academy.
They were soon joined by invited students from elsewhere
in the Gulf and in Africa to in an effort to increase
the level of competition.
These student athletes will stay at the academy
through their high school years and train in the
most sophisticated sports facilities available while
being challenged in an academically rigorous system.
The plan is for them to be an example of Qatari
sports in the region and eventually in the world.
The mission is to transform Qatari students into
Qatari champions.
The overall goal is to be competitive on the international
level. The first extension will be to champions
in the region and the next step will be the Asian
Games. By 2010, Aspire would like to offer qualified
athletes representing Qatar at world championships
and to the Olympic games. "Clearly the goal
is to have success in international competition
and the Olympics are the pinnacle of sporting competition.
We will certainly have ASPIRE athletes competing
in the 2008 Games, however we have a long term strategy
and we are already looking ahead to the London Games
in 2012," said Dr. Flock.
Medals and titles are not the only goal, though,
as the broader desire is to instill a healthier
sense of lifestyle in a country where computers,
the internet and the fast-food culture is causing
increasing health complications, such as heart disease,
obesity, and diabetes. According to Dr. Flock, "Sport
has a major role to play in improving public health.
We want today’s young sporting talents to inspire
other children and their families to get involved
in physical activity, get fitter and live a more
active lifestyle."
The vision behind this is unique and tailored to
meet the needs of Qatar. It’s not the kind
of program that would work in larger countries like
Germany or Britain, but in Qatar, with its compact
population of 750,000- unofficial estimates put
the number of locals at around 150,000- such a cradle-to-podium
program is possible and manageable.
The first 92 Aspire students, including 25 who
are non-Qatari, entered the Academy as part of its
inaugural class. Of these 92 athletes, it is uncertain
how many will actually make it to the top of their
chosen sports. The Aspire staff is realistic in
knowing that only a handful of them will actually
become champions. In fact, international experience
shows that maybe five percent will make it to the
top of their sports.
Dr. Flock said, "For those student athletes
that do not reach the highest levels of competition,
there is a support network in place which equips
them with the skills and qualifications to be successful,
perhaps as coaches or physiotherapists, ensuring
they remain involved in sport. Of course, the aim
of Aspire is for these students to fulfill our motto
and Aspire today, inspire tomorrow and encourage
future generations of elite athletes."
As part of planning for the future, Aspire Academy
is already expanding its enrollment by starting
to test young Qatari girls. The plan is to invite
the most athletically adept of these young women
to study at Aspire in what would be a groundbreaking
initiative in this traditionally conservative Muslim
country. The most significant legacy of Aspire will
be the increased awareness of sports for the people
of Qatar. Dr. Flock stated, "With the advent
of the Asian Games, and facilities like Aspire offering
some of the best facilities in the world, there
are amazing opportunities for people to play sport
and when they do, this would provide the perfect
legacy."
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