Jun 2008 - OPEC

from across the region and to turn them into worldrenowned
champions.
Given the academy’s resources — they are, quite simply,
unparalleled — this does not appear an overambitious
goal. Its indoor multi-sports dome — the largest in the
world — comes replete with high altitude, movement and
power analysis laboratories, two football pitches, an athletics
track, an Olympic-sized swimming and diving pool,
a gymnastics hall, eight fencing strips, a medical-cumphysiotherapy
centre, 13 table-tennis courts and more.
Outside — and nor is this an exhaustive list — there are a
further seven football pitches, tennis courts and another
running track.
The chosen few
Then again, ASPIRE is not looking to attract just anyone.
The academy’s innovative Talent Identification Programme
is as thorough as they come. Working in close coordination
with Qatar’s Ministry of Education, the Supreme Council
of Education and the Qatar National Olympic Committee,
the programme tests all boys and girls in grades six and
seven throughout the state’s school system. “Students
are tested on body shape characteristics, physical characteristics
(lower body power, upper body power, distance
throw, speed and endurance), agility and motor coordination,”
elaborates Bleicher, who knows a thing or two
about what makes a good athlete. Before joining ASPIRE,
he was Director of both the Olympic Training Centre in
Germany and the German Coach Academy — the highest
institution for coaches in Germany.
Geographical boundaries are readily traversed in
the quest for the best of the best. “While the vast majority
of our students come from within Qatar, ASPIRE also
offers a scholarship programme to talented children from
developing countries,” explains Bleicher. “A number of
pupils from African countries are currently members of
the ASPIRE community. In part, the aim of bringing talented
students from abroad is to raise the overall level
of skills within each sporting discipline at the academy,
so that excellence breeds further excellence, particularly
in team sports.”
A case in point is the ‘ASPIRE Africa — Football
Dreams’ project. Billed as the ‘world’s biggest football
talent identification programme of all time’, it whittled
away 430,000 hopefuls from across Cameroon, Ghana,
Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa into
a squad of just 23 boys, for final trials in Doha. The
search involved 26,000 football matches on 700 differ-
ent pitches. And it seems it has
been more than worth the effort.
“The standard of the ASPIRE Africa
team is phenomenal,” says ASPIRE
Project Manager Josep Colomer.
“We have hosted matches against
the youth squads of some of the
biggest teams in the world and
have had to play the boys against
older opposition to provide a balanced
competition.” Among the
highlights so far has been a hardfought
victory over Portuguese
giants FC Porto.
Football aside, ASPIRE hosted
seven sports — gymnastics, badminton,
kabaddi, wushu, wrestling,
boxing and track cycling —
at XV Asiad, the 15th Asian Games,
held in Doha in late 2006. The
event, broadcast live by Eurosport
for the first time, proved ASPIRE’s
worth as an international sporting
venue, as audiences across
Europe witnessed the academy’s
phenomenal facilities first hand.
Eight ASPIRE students competed
in the games and one, 14-yearold
Waleed Al Sharshani, even
managed to bring home a silver
medal in the Laser 4.7 Open Sailing
Competition.
More recently, in squash,
ASPIRE’s Abdulla Al Tamimi
became the Arab Champion and
winner of the Welsh, Flemish and
Australian under-13 Open titles.
In table-tennis, an ASPIRE team
won its division in the 2008 World
Championships in China. And 19
year-old Mohamed Salh Idriss
scooped silver in the Lisbon half
marathon. Like the academy’s
myriad resources, its list of major
achievements already goes on
and on. But Bleicher doesn’t like
to get ahead of himself: “We have
a number of very talented student
athletes who are achieving very
Josep Colomer, ASPIRE Project Manager.
OPEC bulletin 6/08
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