FINA has announced that Doha, Qatar will take over as the new host of the 2014 World Short Course Championships, replacing Catania, Italy who backed-out earlier this year on the pressure of a mounting debt crisis in that country. This adds the more minor of the two World Championship cycles to a growing list of international sporting events that includes the 2022 soccer World Cup – one of the largest sporting events in the world.
That would make for three-straight editions of this meet held in the region, after 2010 in Dubai and 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. All three have been countries where the swimming community is attempting to make strides, but currently exists without much of an elite swimming class – and the lack of competition for these bids shows that events like this are in-and-of themselves not financially viable, unless there is some further gain to be had by motivating a community to produce a national industry.
“This a real boost to our plans for the sport here in Qatar and also a great platform to further develop Swimming in the region,” Khaleel Al-Jabir, President of Qatar Swimming Association said of the decision.
This demonstrates the shift in investment of oil-rich nations like Qatar, that are trying to brand themselves as sporting paradises, including sites for spectacular global events, as well as international sporting training centers. This is a new sporting strategy, where the Qataris are trying to develop their own athletes, whereas previously they simply purchased athletes from other countries with citizenship and cash. After a failed bid for the 2016 Olympics, Qatar has turned their hopes towards more sport-specific events to prove their ability to host world-class athletes.
The meet is to be held in the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence complex, which is a massive sporting complex in Doha.
