Qatar wins bid to host Asian Games 2030

*Riyadh chosen as venue for 22nd Asian Games in 2034

Doha will host the Olympic Council of Asia’s 21st Asian Games in 2030 after it won the highest number of votes in a secret ballot of the OCA’s 45 National Olympic Committees in Muscat, Wednesday. The voting took place on the sidelines of the 39th OCA General Assembly.



 The assembly was attended by HE the President of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and Chairman of Doha 2030 Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, HE CEO of Qatar Foundation Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al-Thani and HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.











The voting took place in the presence of Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham al-Said, Oman's Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, and several other dignitaries.
Riyadh will now host the 22nd Asian Games in 2034, meaning the next four Asian Games are in place and the next available hosting year is 2038 – 18 years away.
The voting numbers in the host cities election were 27 for Doha, 10 for Riyadh and there were 8 abstentions.
For Qatar, HE Sheikh Joaan and for Saudi Arabia Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, President of Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, signed the contracts for the 2030 and 2034 Asian Games, respectively.
Doha hosted the 15th Asian Games in 2006, with the participation of the 45 member states of the Olympic Council of Asia. A total of 423 competitions were organised across 39 sports.
"Doha put forward a compact and risk-free bid, with all sports stadiums already in place. The award of the Asian Games will further boost its profile as a world-class sports city, capable of hosting major international events in a variety of sports," a statement issued by OCA said.
Qatar will host the next FIFA World Cup in 2022.
"Before the vote took place, OCA President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah said he had met with representatives of the two candidate cities the previous evening, and they had agreed to a proposal that the city with the highest number of votes would host the 2030 Asian Games and the city with the second most votes would host 2034.
Sheikh Ahmad said he had made the move in the spirit of “friendship, solidarity and unity” and to produce a “win-win” situation," the OCA release said.
The proposal was unanimously approved by the 45 NOC delegations.
The 19th Asian Games will take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25, 2022 and the 20th Asian Games, Aichi-Nagoya, Japan from September 19 to October 4, 2026.
The Asian Games is the second largest multi-sport event in the world after the Summer Olympics, with the participation of more than 10,000 athletes from 45 Asian countries.
Qatar has a strong track record in organising world championships, including the 2010 World Indoor Athletics Championships, IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2014, World Handball Championships 2015, UCI Road World Championships 2016, World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2018, World Athletics Championships 2019, and the First World Beach Games Qatar 2019.
Qatar is set to organise a number of major tournaments, among which are the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2023 World Aquatics Championship, the 2023 World Judo Championship as well and other tournaments listed on its sports calendar.
Qatar Olympic Committee also announced that it had formally submitted its request to the International Olympic Committee to join the continuous dialogue and non-binding on hosting one of the Olympic and Paralympic Games starting with the 2032 edition.