Kuwait City, Kuwait, August 21, 2022: The Olympic Council of Asia’s Sports for All Committee held an online meeting on Sunday to discuss the revival of activities following the pandemic.
The Chair of the Committee, Gen. Mowafak Jomaa of Syria, welcomed the members and said he was looking forward to making new plans for the sports for all movement around the continent.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sports for All Committee has not been able to implement any of our programmes since the end of 2019,” he said.
“Now we can begin work on increasing the number of sports for all activities throughout Asia and submitting proposals and an action plan for 2023-2024 to the OCA.”
The members discussed several ideas. These included the possibility of a festival of traditional sports, such as tug of war, to run alongside major events like the Asian Games or Asian Beach Games to increase the awareness and popularity of these “sports for all” disciplines in all zones of the OCA. They also discussed ways of attracting different age groups into sport through sports for all events.
The OCA’s Director of International and National Olympic Committee Relations, Vinod Kumar Tiwari, gave members an update on the busy schedule of the OCA as the sports world returns to normal.
These events have included the OCA Development Programme for 506 coaches and referees from 12 NOCs in West Asia in nine sports held in Kuwait City; the second phase of the development programme coming up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from November 3-7 for NOCs from Central Asia and South Asia in five sports (boxing, judo, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling); the OCA Athletes’ Committee Webinar held on August 3; the OCA Diving Development Youth Camp in Kuala Lumpur from August 14-21, and the OCA Gender Equity Seminar planned for Bahrain on October 30-31.
Mr. Tiwari also gave details of the OCA activities coming up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this October, starting with the first International Hangzhou Asian Games Fun Run on October 2, the Executive Board meeting on October 3 and the General Assembly on October 4, when the Saudi Arabian host city of the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Neom is set to be confirmed.
The next meeting of the OCA Sports for All Committee has been proposed to take place on the sidelines of the 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023.
