DOHA: Swimming legend Mark Spitz will join popular South African athlete Oscar Pistorious and a series of other high profile names as keynote speakers at the three-day Doha Goals Forum starting tomorrow.
The December 10 to 12 forum - being held under the patronage of the Emir, HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani - will include plenary sessions, debates and discussions over the next three days.
Spitz, who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympic Games, and Pistorious - the man popularly known as ‘Blade Runner’ for using artificial limbs - will deliver key speeches at the forum, Sheikh Faisal bin Mubarak Al Thani, Executive Director of Doha Goals, said.
“We are delighted to launch the inaugural annual Doha Goals Forum,” Sheikh Faisal told the official website of the Forum.
Officials also said Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Olympic Games Organising Committee, will tag along with fellow IOC member Nawal El Moutawakel to debate and discuss sports issues with policymakers at the three-day conference.
Coe managed the ship at the London Olympics in August this year, winning wide-spread applause for the two-week multi-discipline events.
Pistorious - the 25-year-old double amputee - was part of the South African athletes squad at the London Games.
Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrehman Al Thani, Secretary General, Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), Nasser Al Khulaifi, Managing Director, Al Jazeera Sports Channel and Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, are the top three Qatari speakers at the convention.
Retired track and field star Carl Lewis of the US will make his second visit to Doha in recent years.
Fifty-one-year-old Lewis, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold and 10 World Championships medals including 8 gold, will bring his rich experience in debating issues in professional sports.
Jean Todt, chief of FIA, the world body in car racing, is also set for his second visit to Qatar in less than three years.
Officials confirmed that Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe - who was a massive hit at the London Olympic Games in a commentator’s role - is also listed as one of the keynote speakers.
In a rare appearance, former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi will dock in Doha for the conference, officials said.
Rugby great Francois Pienaar, South Africa’s World Cup winning captain in 1995, is also on the list of speakers, it was confirmed.
Track and field star Lewis leads those backing new initiative aimed at driving social and economic change through sport.
Officials linked with ‘Doha Goals’ will address the media today.
‘Doha Goals’ was launched during the London Olympics.
The initiative, from the Aspire Zone Foundation and Richard Attias & Associates, is busy attracting a community of hundreds of key influencers from all spheres of life who believe sport is a crucial vehicle for social and economic development.
During the launch ceremony in London, Lewis said: “Sport creates opportunities for communities: athletes from small countries and impoverished areas can compete on the global stage and shine a spotlight on their communities. This in turn creates economic opportunities at home, opens the outside world to seeing and understanding new cultures, and empowers athletes to use the public platform for good.”
Sheikh Faisal, Executive Director of Doha Goals, said at the time: “We want to make a tangible difference which why the focus of this Forum has been placed firmly on driving action and making positive changes. We want to produce initiatives to tackle challenges to society and work on developing and improve key areas within sport.”
Attias, the former producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos, will produce Doha Goals. He said: “Sport has the power to bring about great social integration, as well as bring communities together in a spirit of trust and friendship. Doha Goals is a call to action that will bring together a community of policy makers and government officials, heads of business, athletes, NGOs and students to build a roadmap for how we can harness this power to improve societies around the world.”
The objectives of the Forum were dictated by a taskforce of more than 50 of the leading policymakers, innovators, sports scientists, physicians, federations heads, academics, athletes, corporate executives and competitors who gathered for a Pre-Forum event in January 2012.
This group, which included top executives from FC Barcelona, IMG, Coca-Cola, as well as federation heads, and past and present athletes, debated economic development, the commercialisation of sports, the welfare of athletes, and sport as a vehicle for tourism growth. THE PENINSULA
