02.12.2008
LAUSANNE, 15 October 2007 – The Doha 2016 Bid Delegation arrived at the home of the Olympic Movement in Switzerland today for the start of an IOC workshop about the 2016 Candidature process.
Heading the Qatari Delegation at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne is Hassan Ali Bin Ali, the Chairman of the Bid. Other members of the Delegation are Hamad al Baker, Director of the Finance Commission; Fareed Mohammed Abdulla, Director of the Venue Development Commission; Khalid Darwish Zainal, Assistant Director of the Venue Development Commission; Muhammad Ali Al-Sheeb, Director of the Planning Commission; and Tom Coyne, the Doha 2016 Project Director.
Mr Hassan said: “It is a great honour to be here in the home of the Olympic Movement. I am very much looking forward to this workshop. The Doha team is here to understand what the Olympic and Paralympic Games are all about, the background, the rationale for the Games and the selection criteria of selecting the Host City. Our Application File is well underway, but we anticipate that this workshop will help us refine our plan and the document we submit.”
“We are going to work extremely hard to do a very good job in our Bid. We gained enormous experience when we hosted the Asian Games last year. However, Doha has never bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games before, so I am certain these sessions will be extremely instructive for us.”
“We are also extremely proud to be here at the heart of the Olympic Movement representing the first city from the Arabic world bidding to host the Summer Games. We believe that honouring Doha with the 2016 Games will unleash the power of the Olympic Movement and peaceful sport to create understanding, hope and change that could unite the Arabic world with the rest of the world.”
“We are greatly looking forward to meeting the members of the other Bid Cities and being part of a good and fair competition in the spirit of the Olympic Movement.”
The series of seminars, held over three and a half days, aim to instruct the Delegations of all Applicant Cities in all the technical aspects required to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These include elements such as security, accommodation, transport, technology, sustainable development and legacy.
Doha’s Application File is due to be handed in to the IOC on 14 January 2008.
A shortlist of the Candidate Cities will be announced in June 2008 and the announcement of the Host City will take place on 2 October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
ENDS