Since its establishment in 1979, QOC has been paramount in growing sports awareness in the Gulf State. 

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) will mark its 45th anniversary this Thursday, celebrating decades of crowning achievements.

Founded on March 14, 1979, QOC has implemented unprecedented achievements made and headed by several presidents — the first of whom was Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, followed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Fahad Al-Thani, Sheikh Saud bin Khalid Al-Thani, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and the incumbent President Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Sheikh Joaan was a Torch Relay ambassador at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and was appointed President of the QOC in May 2015.

Under the QOC, Qatar has prevailed through many frontiers, as in the case of the 1992 Summer Olympics, when Mohamed Suleiman achieved the first Qatari Olympic medal by winning a bronze in the 1,500-metre race at the Olympics in Barcelona.

Suleiman’s victory was also the first Olympic medal awarded to an athlete in the Gulf Region.

Years later, Asaad Saeed Saif won a bronze medal in weightlifting in the 105 kg category at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Superstar Mutaz Barshim won silver in the high jump at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics before Qatar succeeded in topping the overall standings of Arab countries in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Barshim and weightlifter Fares Ibrahim triumphed as they earned two gold medals.

Exceptional tournaments from heart of the Arab world

On a larger scale, Qatar first created headlines when Doha hosted the 15th Asian Games in December 2006.

All 45 members of the Olympic Council of Asia participated in the event for the first time, and Qatar became the first Arab country to host this event.

On December 2, 2010, Qatar won the FIFA World Cup 2022 organisation after being voted in the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

Qatar became the first Arab and Middle Eastern country to host the tournament and was ultimately praised by countless organisers and athletes for hosting the best FIFA World Cup of all time.

Qatar would welcome approximately 1.4 million visitors during the 29-day event. By the opening day of the World Cup, it sold 2.95 million tickets, comfortably exceeding Russia in 2018, where just over 2.4 million tickets were sold.

The Argentina-Mexico match at Lusail Stadium saw the highest attendance on record at a FIFA World Cup match since 1994, with 88,966 attendees.

The tournament featured a record 172 goals and a final match between Argentina and France that many pundits regard as the greatest of all time.

Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani paid tribute to the finalists and fans of the FIFA World Cup in a series of tweets published after the showdown at Lusail Stadium.

The Qatari leader emphasised that the Gulf State — the first Arab nation to host the major sporting event — had kept its promise to hold an exceptional tournament from the heart of the Arab world, despite facing relentless criticism from Western nations and the media in the lead-up to the tournament.

“I congratulate the Argentine national team for winning the Qatar World Cup 2022, and the French national team for coming second, and I thank all the teams for their wonderful play, and the fans who enthusiastically encouraged them,” he tweeted.

“In conclusion, we have fulfilled our promise to organise an exceptional championship from the Arab world, which provided an opportunity for the peoples of the world to learn about the richness of our culture and the origin of our values,” he added.

“With the end of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, I extend my thanks to all those who contributed from the fans, volunteers, individuals, institutions and ministries to the success of the tournament and showing it, Qatar, and the Arab world in an honourable way to millions of viewers around the world,” he added.

“I also thank the International Federation of Football Associations for the constructive cooperation in organising this tournament, and I hope that the success we have achieved in hosting the tournament will be a motive for providing more service in uplifting our dear country,” he concluded.