Conclusion of the SOP 7th Edition Competitions

The 7th edition of the Schools Olympic Program under the theme ‘Sport & Integrity’ has comes to an end when the final competitions are staged on Thursday and Friday (March 20-21) in the Hall of the Sports Academy for Sport Excellence at the Aspire Dome.

The over six month competitions started in September 2013 registered the participation of 26,454 male and female students from various school levels. Over 3,000 students representing 220 schools made it to the finals to compete mainly for the first and second places in team sports (football, volleyball, basketball and handball), and for reaching the podium in individual sports (athletics, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, fencing, table tennis and shooting).

Will attend the SOP 7th edition finals this year, many local and international sport personalities, including Mr. Wilfred Lemke, the UN Secretary General Adviser for Youth Sport and the Environment, Dr. Klaus Schormann, the President of the International Pentathlon Association and the Tunisian swimming star, Oussama Mallouli.

The Schools Olympic Program was launched by Qatar after successfully hosting the 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006. It is a national program aimed at developing the sport skills, and promoting social values among students in various school grades. Among its objectives is to raise the youth’s awareness about the importance of physical activities and about adopting a healthy lifestyle. Students from public and private schools take part in the program activities, and the preliminary stages of the competitions are staged in the schools facilities, while the finals are hosted in the Aspire Dome. The program is managed under the supervision of the QOC and The Supreme Education Council (SEC) in cooperation with the Qatar School Sport Federation and the Qatar Paralympic Federation.

The SOP represents a unique opportunity to discover new talents among the participating students, and to feed the Qatari clubs, federation and National teams with new athletes. It also promotes communication among various government and community institutions in a way to develop the administrative and technical skills of youth who have then the potential to contribute in achieving the development objectives of the country.

Since its first edition, the SOP has been achieving growing success through the increasing number of participating students and schools. In the first edition in the season, 2007/8 under the theme ‘Sport and Health’, 5000 students from 100 schools took part in the program. Then, every edition had its own theme:

- 2008/9: 2nd SOP edition: ‘Sport and the Environment’

- 2009/10: 3rd SOP edition: ‘Sport and Culture’

- -2010/11: 4th SOP edition ‘Sport and Education’

- 2011/12: 5th SOP edition ‘Sport and Family’

- 2012/2013: 6th SOP edition ‘Sport and Investment’ where the number of participants reached over 23,000 students.

From another side, a survey conducted by the QOC in cooperation with the Development Planning and Statistics Ministry and with the Supreme Education Council, showed that 90% of the families encourage their children to take part in the seventh SOP edition. That was part of a wider survey aimed at measuring the level of participation of the Qatar population in sport and physical activities, as one of the strategic projects in the sport sector (2011-2016). The survey included 3,200 Qatari and expatriate families in various parts of Qatar.

The sample included 52% of men and 48% of women within the age category of 25-44 years, with the majority of them being from the age category of 30-34 years.

20 Years at #1: