Introduced for the first time in the history of the games by this year’s Arab Games Organizing Committee (AGOC) and host Qatar Olympic Committee, the rewards are set to leave a lasting legacy and benefit sports across all Arab nations with each National Olympic Committee (NOC) due to receive identical financial reward as the medal winning individual or team.
Scheduled to take place in Doha Dec. 9 –23 and featuring 6,000 athletes in close to 30 sports, the AGOC has confirmed all preparations are on track to deliver a truly memorable sporting and cultural celebration.
Speaking on the latest initiative to be announced during the buildup to the Arab Games, Abdullah Almulla, official spokesman and AGOC Media & Broadcasting director, said: “Our vision is to create the ideal sporting environment and platform to inspire Arab athletes and excite fans from all nations with outstanding sporting action. The Arab Games Doha 2011 will bring everything together to make that vision a reality by offering leading athletes a financial reward to support careers and improve chances of further success on the international sporting stage.
“All Arab athletes are motivated first and foremost to win gold and to represent their country with pride and honor to the best of their ability. But our intention is to provide an additional incentive, which will celebrate their efforts as well as encourage sporting excellence in their home nation.”
Rewards will be presented to athletes that break Arab sporting records, individual and team sport medal winners as well as the ‘Best Player’ of the games, offered to the individual who wins the most number of medals.
For every record broken the athlete and his/her National Olympic Committee (NOC) will both receive $5,000. Each gold medalist will receive $5,000, silver medal winners $3,000 and bronze medal winners $2,000.
The individual with the most medals will get a reward of $70,000, with a further $70,000 provided to his or her NOC, in addition to special recognition by the official sponsors of the 2011 Arab Games.
Also, gold medal winning teams will be presented with a $50,000 cash reward for the members of the team and their NOC, silver medal winners $30,000 and bronze medal winners $10,000.
“Introducing financial rewards to Arab Games Doha 2011simply reflect Qatar’s love of sport and desire to celebrate world-class performances. In just over one month’s time new Arab sporting heroes will be created in Doha, heroes that will inspire entire nations and encourage our young people to strive for excellence. As a direct result sports in all Arab nations will benefit through an Arab Games, not only of Olympic standards, but also Olympic values,” said Almulla.
Beyond financial incentives Doha 2011 already achieved a number of ‘firsts’ highlighting AGOC’s commitment to set a new standard for the Arab Games that rivals any major international sporting event.
Doha 2011 will be the first Arab Games to feature a purposely built Athletes’ Village. The new village will house all athletes, paralympic athletes and officials, and is conveniently located to event venues and training facilities. Doha 2011 will also be the first Arab Games to be broadcast live to the region in HD, showing the sporting heroes in action in glorious high definition.
With tickets to go on-sale in coming weeks the excitement continues to build ahead of the Arab Games Doha 2011 next month. For the latest news visit the website www.arabgames2011.qa.
