Athletes Village Scores With Beach Games Competitors

(ATR) The Athletes Village for the ANOC World Beach Games receives rave reviews from its guests.

The Ezdan Hotel Towers, afour-building residential complex in Doha’s West Bay, is offering all the necessities, services and amenities that the beach and water sport athletes might require. With each tower 35 stories high, some 1270 athletes and 700 officials are calling Ezdan home during the six-day, multi-sport event in the Qatari capital.

Unlike more traditional Athletes’ Villages at Olympics and other multi-sport games, the athletes are sharing the space alongside local residents.

"It’s definitely more luxury than we’re accustomed to," said Canadian beach volleyball player Kerri Lynn Battiston. "The food, gym and facilities are better here than at previous multi-sport games I’ve been to."

"It’s been great – we love it," added her teammate Tori Cowley. "We’ve actually started to become a little more accustomed to the heat, so if anything the air conditioning might be a little intense

"It has everything we need and the views are nice as well, so we’re happy."

The Doha 2019 organizing committee was able to convert the residential facility – which housed media during the 2005 Asian Games – into a comfortable home for athletes in less than three months time.

ANOC Athletes Commission chair Kirsty Coventry liked what she observed from the athletes around the non-traditional Village.

"The athletes just seem happy – everyone is smiling and joking with each other," Coventry tells Around the Rings at the Ezdan facility. "The sports that are here are a little more relaxed and laid back culturally, and that really helps the whole environment, which is fun."

There are numerous NOC services on the ground floor, in addition to a full service physiotherapy facility. The ANOC Athletes Commission, Athlete 365 and WADA all have booths catering to athletes’ questions and needs. A daily morning meeting is held with the respective Chefs de Mission, although with no major issues and everything appearing to be be running smoothly, it has become less and less attended every day.

"The advantage here is that it’s a major operating hotel, so we tried to add a bit more services to it to make it more functioning like a village," said Louis Louis, director of NOC services for the Doha 2019 organizing committee. "The advantage again is that we didn’t need a big team to do it.

"We complemented the services they are providing and making sure everything is to the liking of the athletes, team officials and guests.

"If we had to do a village from start, we’d have said forget it," he said with a laugh.

Athletes can choose from two dining halls and a sports bar, where they can watch their fellow athletes competing. The spacious rooftop swimming pool, with neighboring skyscrapers towering alongside, is a popular place considering Doha’s sweltering daytime heat.

Even light training outside near the swimming pool and around the accommodations has been challenging for athletes though. A Hungarian athlete just finishing a warm-up on a training bike remarked it’s "just too hot".

If NOCs have special requests, the Doha 2019 organizing committee staff are present to accommodate. An impromptu birthday party for a Portuguese athlete, her teammates and anyone else who wanted to stop by, was arranged on short notice.

"They wanted to have the party within the village in a public place to give the athlete some memories and photos with the local residents," Louis explained. "That’s what they wanted and that’s what we gave them."

Written and reported by Brian Pinelli in Doha, Qatar

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