the 2016 Olympics

Rio de Janeiro's successful bid to host the 2016 Olympics looks like a sign for Qatar. It was only last June that Doha's bid for the Olympics was turned down by the IOC (even though some argue that the Qatar bid itself was better).

All the Olympic buzz placed Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid as ahead of Rio as favourites for the 2016 Olypmics. But less than a year later, Rio came up on top.

Qatar can certainly take heart from this. Qatar now has a dream to host the football World Cup in 2022.

If it happens, it will be the first time the World Cup travels to the Middle East and Qatar will become the first Arab country to host this prestigious event.

The road ahead is not easy and is difficult even for the biggest countries. But with the unwavering support and commitment to sport that Qatar has shown, even the impossible looks more doable.

Qatar Living has been tracking the growth of Qatar since 2005 and are fully behind the Qatar 2022 bid! We support the dream and bid for the 2022 World Cup!

We're proud to announce our unwavering support to the country's World Cup bid at the exact moment the Qatar 2022 bid website goes live.

Stand up, Qatar, look the world in the eye, take a bow and make us all proud!

The silly season has started.. :o)

OK.. I can understand Rugby Sevens, but GOLF????? And as for Softball .. Don't even get me started...

Seven sports are bidding for inclusion at the 2016 Olympics . Golf and rugby sevens look to be favourites to be added to the Olympic programme in time for the 2016 Games.

But softball and squash both have hopes of gaining the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee's executive board on Thursday.

A seven-sport shortlist, also including baseball, karate and roller sports, will be trimmed to "no more than four".

A final decision on the two new sports will not be rubber-stamped until an IOC meeting in Copenhagen in October.

Hello, I'm new to this site. However, I'd like to try and contribute actively to this forum.

I would like to post a story about Qatar which I came across the other day. It appeared in Kuwait Times last Wednesday. I'm providing the link to another person's blog who had attributed the story to Kuwait Times. It made interesting reading. It also shows Qatar's ambition.

(Unfortunately, I could not locate the story on Kuwait Times...)

http://thegulfblog.com/2009/07/20/qatar’s-increasing-international-profile/

Qatar’s increasing international profile

David B Roberts