Kuwait City, Kuwait, March 23, 2022: The Olympic Council of Asia will take a more hands-on role in developing sport in the region with the ongoing special development project for coaches and referees from 12 National Olympic Committees in West Asia being a “test run” for the way forward.
“In the past, we used to support the 45 NOCs in Asia by giving them money and letting them run their own development projects, but we thought why not implement these projects ourselves? This special development project is part of our new strategy,” explained the OCA Director General, Mr. Husain AlMusallam.
“This time we will implement it ourselves. We need to act now andthese clinics and seminars for coaches and referees in West Asia willbe a test run. Once we have feedback and done a study, we will look athaving similar projects for other regions in Asia,” added Mr. AlMusallam.
A dozen NOCs from West Asia, including six from the Gulf Cooperation Council, are involved in this inaugural project to develop coaches andreferees across nine sports.
The 12 NOCs are Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and hosts Kuwait.
The nine sports are athletics, basketball, football, gymnastics, handball, judo, swimming, table tennis and volleyball.
World class coaches and referees have been brought in by the OCA to run the seminars and clinics for more than 330 coaches and referees in the project, which got underway on Tuesday, March 22 and will continue in three phases until May 12.
Among the top coaches is Swimming USA’s Dr. Genadijus Sokolovas, who played a key role in the development of Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals including 23 gold medals.
“Coaches and referees play an important role in the development of athletes, and projects like these will be hugely beneficial to the National Olympic Committees in Asia,” said Felix Ratz, International Handball Federation official and referee.
Tony Tarraf, Head of Athletes Development Department and Special Projects, OCA, said the COVID-19 pandemic was another reason why this idea had been born.
“The pandemic has disrupted lives all over the world. People have not been able to travel. This is why we felt that having a project like this, in one place, and getting coaches and referees down as well as coming on board online will be the best way to help develop sports,” Tarraf revealed.
“We are working closely with the International Federations and Asian Federations in each sport, for example FINA, and with their
help we have brought together some of the best lecturers in the world to impart their knowledge to our coaches and referees. At the end of the day, this will be a huge boost for sports in these 12 countries,” Tarraf added.
