Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and President of the QOA, was joined by Tamás Aján, President of the HOA and IWF and honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), for the signing ceremony in Doha. 

The QOA was founded in 2006 with the aim of becoming a leading academy for sports and Olympic education nationally, in the Arabic-speaking region and within the international Olympic Movement.

It regularly hosts courses and education programmes, including the recent IOC Athlete Career Programme training workshop, led by IOC Athletes' Commission chair, Claudia Bokel.

Last year the QOA signed a Protocol of Corporation with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to provide academic and technical training sessions for coaches, referees, specialists and technicians from across Asia.

The MoU between the QOA and the HOA sets out how the two Academies will cooperate to provide specialised educational courses to increase knowledge and understanding of sport and the Olympic Movement.

The MoU between the QOA and the IWF, meanwhile, sets out how the two organisations will work together to provide training courses for coaches, managers and sports administrators in order to raise the level of weightlifting in the Middle East and Asian countries.

Doha hosted the 2005 World Weightlifting Championships, bringing relations between the Qatar Olympic Committee and the International Weightlifting Federation closer together ©Getty Images



"Qatar is committed to the promotion and development of sport regionally and internationally and the Qatar Olympic Academy aims to provide high-quality professional education programmes to develop and enrich national and regional sport leaders, managers and coaches and to help them lead in sports and the Olympic Movement," said Sheikh Saoud.

"These MoUs will enable us to share best practices and further the development of Olympic sport and of weightlifting in the region.

"I look forward to our close cooperation with the IWF and with the Hungarian Olympic Academy over the coming years."

The QOC first signed a cooperation agreement with the Hungarian Olympic Committee in 1999 and has enjoyed close relations with the IWF since Qatar hosted the World Weightlifting Cup in 2000 and the World Weightlifting Championships in 2005.

"I first visited Qatar in 1997 and it is unbelievable how much Qatar has progressed since that time," said Aján, President of the HOA since 1989.

"It has not only changed very quickly but it has also changed very positively and I am very impressed by the work that Qatar is doing to develop sport internationally.

"I am also very impressed with the work that Qatar has done to develop weightlifting, including its very successful hosting of the 2000 World Cup and 2005 World Championships.

"The IWF is looking forward to very close cooperation with the QOA to create an educational programme that utilises outstanding experts, including coaches, judges, doctors and anti-doping specialists, in order to further develop weightlifting in Asian and Arabic countries."

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