Dubai: Already positioning itself for an Olympic Games bid, just 40 years since its formation, the emergence of the UAE as a premier global sporting, tourism and business hub would be fully defined by its ultimate goal — Dubai 2024.
Vast infrastructural growth twinned with a strong appetite to attract the world's best sporting events to its shores, has certainly made for a rich history to date — but the future remains even more trailblazing for the UAE with Olympic ambition so clear on the horizon.
Dubai first showed an interest in a bid for the 2016 Olympics, but didn't submit by the September 2007 deadline. Instead, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, commissioned sports industry experts to submit a feasibility study in 2009 to establish Dubai's aptitude for hosting the games in either 2020 or 2024.
The report's conclusion, published in July 2011 and chaired by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, suggested that although as much as 70 per cent of the infrastructure was already in place or planned for 2020, 2024 would allow more adequate time to produce the best show on earth.
‘More to be done'
In the meantime, Dubai will look to host the Youth Olympics or the Asian Games. Shaikh Hamdan said: "Hosting the Olympic Games in the Middle East would be a dream come true for the entire region, and we fully intend to place a bid once I am totally satisfied that we are prepared to host the greatest sporting event in history in a way that would add value to the Olympic movement itself, as well as the youth of the Arab World.
"While I am totally satisfied that infrastructure and Dubai's experience in hosting top class sports events would see us well-placed to win a bid, I do believe that much more has to be done in order to leave the lasting human legacy that celebrates the Olympic values."
"I believe that a concentrated effort must now be made on grassroots sports activities, building our human resources and administrative framework, our energy needs to go first and foremost to achieving a just and lasting peace for our youth as the bedrock to a future bid which is most likely for the 2024 Olympic Games."
One eye will be on the temperature for Dubai however as Qatar was stripped from the 2016 shortlist four years ago because of dates outside the International Olympic Committee's published window, in order to escape the mid-summer heat.
