Qatar sport COVERMG.indd - Qatar Olympic Committee

chest palpations) to look out for.
When Qatar Sport interviewed Aspetar’s
Cardiac Physiologist, Dr Mathew Wilson,
he was assisting the medical team and
the NSMP in the preparation for cardiac
screening the playing squads of the Qatar
Stars League clubs, at the rate of one club
per day in the space of three weeks.
The Aspetar screening team has also
worked with international teams like
Australia’s Socceroos before last year’s
AFC Asian Cup and believes the Aspetar
facility offers the perfect one-stop shop
for pre-season screening and training. But
football is not the only sport under his
remit. Supported by the Qatar
Olympic Committee, Dr Wilson says
that Aspetar aims to implement a
comprehensive screening programme for
all athletes in Qatar.
“We see a lot of athletes who have
never seen a physician before, and so for
them, we are a frontline screening centre,
and as a result see a lot of pathology.”
This influx of sports people from all
over the world into Qatar also provides
excellent data for research on ethnically
diverse populations, unavailable elsewhere
in the world. “Along with sports people
of Arabic descent, we have athletes from
west Africa, Persia, India, Pakistan and
South America which is very interesting for
clinical research,” says Dr Wilson.
As a result, Aspetar is undertaking
major research projects with partner
hospitals in London, Barcelona, Belgium
and Ireland to help understand the
impact of an athlete’s ethnicity upon their
cardiovascular adaptation to exercise,
thus helping the clinician identify what is a
normal versus what is an abnormal heart
response to exercise.
MY HOUSE IS YOUR HOUSE
NOC HOUSES ADD SPICE TO LONDON 2012
Iconic London landmarks will be taken
over by National Olympic Committees
(NOCs) during the London 2012 Olympic
& Paralympic Games. The NOC house
concept, which sees participating country
NOCs take charge of an existing building
or create a temporary home in the host
city, has become a growing feature of the
Olympic Games experience.
It allows NOCs to promote their
capabilities as sporting hosts, take care of
athletes, sponsors and VIPs, and, in some
cases, showcase their countries as a
tourist destination. The good news for
fans and visitors to London 2012 is that a
selection will be open to the public while
the Olympics is going on.
These include NOC houses for Belgium,
Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Germany,
Georgia, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands,
Nigeria, Jamaica, Russia and Switzerland.
There will also be an Africa house, where
all 53 National Olympic Committees of
Africa will come together under one roof.
Casa Brasil, the official Brazilian house,
will surely be one of the most popular
destinations. Located in Somerset House
on the banks of the River Thames, the
organising country for Rio 2016, will be a
hot house of Brazilian culture and a major
focal point during London 2012.
Not to be outshone, the Russian
NOC has planned Team Russia Park, the
official Russian House during the London
2012 Games, located next to Kensington
Gardens and Kensington Palace.
Team Russia Park will boast
entertainment and culture, a big screen,
media facilities, a conference centre and
a chance to meet some of Russia’s top
athletes. The French team have taken Old
Billingsgate market, where the French
Olympic Village, complete with restaurants
and shops, will host the French Olympic
Team and French media companies. As for
the German House, it will be based in the
Museum of London Docklands and on a
five-star cruise liner, MS Deutschland, in
nearby West India Docks.
For London’s tourism agencies, the
NOC houses will add a unique flavour to
the summer of sport and entertainment in
the Olympic capital. According to Martine
Ainsworth-Wells, director of marketing
and communications at London & Partners,
the NOC houses will have an important
role to play for the tourism industry,
acting as another selling point for both
international and domestic visitors.
“NOC houses are certainly a new
feature for the city, and as one-offs, they fit
perfectly into our ‘Limited Edition London’
offering, where we are presenting the
world with one-off and unique reasons to
visit London,” she says. “I think residents
and visitors will be inquisitive about the
different countries represented and be
keen to see what’s inside.”
Sandie Dawe, CEO of VisitBritain agrees
that these NOC houses will add to the
sense of festival in London: “What is
interesting is the concept of these Olympic
houses will be completely new to the
general public. Unless you know all about
the Olympic Movement you won’t have
heard of them before.”
Carrying on the festival theme, there
will be live sites similar to the fan parks set
up for Germany’s 2006 FIFA World Cup
where spectators without tickets can meet
to watch the action on a big screen while
listening to live music. There will be 22 live
sites situated around the UK in cities like
Liverpool and Cardiff, as well as one on the
Olympic doorstep in east London.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC FACTS
• 30.7 million overseas visitors expected
in the UK, 2012
• 9.3 million a year expected to visit the
Olympic Park from 2014
• Increase of 250,000 jobs supported by
tourism in UK between 2010 and 2020
• £2.34 billion in tourist expenditure in
the UK expected to be generated by 2012
London Games from 2007 to 2017 (£1.85
billion in London)
• 10 per cent increase in 2005 inbound
visitors in Athens attributed to 2004 Games
• Number of international visitors
doubled in Barcelona in decade following
the 1992 Games
Qatar Sport | Issue 17 | 9