Muscat, Oman, March 21, 2024: Oman Olympic Committee, represented by the Oman Women’s Sports and Gender Equity Committee, held a GCC Women’s Sports Hackathon earlier this month.
The two-day event with interactive sessions promoting women’s sports was attended by delegations from Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
In her opening address, Sayyida Sanaa bint Hamad Al Busaidiyah, Chair of the Oman Women’s Sports and Gender Equity Committee, said: “The aim of this initiative is to exchange ideas and experiences regarding the promotion of GCC women’s sports, and is characterised by organising specialised workshops.”
Four workshops were held: promoting community sports for women and its sustainability; the role of technology in promoting GCC women’s sports; sustainable sports investment opportunities; and sustainable sports initiatives and programmes.
Each country had to present a project. Bahrain’s "Discovering, Nurturing and Developing Sports Talents" in all sports for both genders was adjudged to be the best project.
The Kuwaiti team presented the idea of reducing sports injuries through the use of professional trainers, while the UAE team presented a project to create an application that would specialise in booking sports facilities in GCC countries. Saudi Arabia presented "Our Hero" project concentrating on spreading women’s sports culture in primary schools for students aged 5 to 12 years.
Hosts Oman had two teams. Its first team presented the initiative to form an integrated volunteer team to serve sporting events and activities for women’s sports, while its second team sought to establish a GCC Women’s Centre for Sports Investment to support all community initiatives.
Speaking on behalf of all participants, Latifa Al-Salham from the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee said: “Through this event we sought to find ideas, solutions and proposals for programmes and initiatives that would develop GCC women’s sports and empower women, society and all other elements.”