(ATR) Athletes and officials offer an early thumbs-up from the Asian Games in Doha, where competition started in advance of opening ceremony Friday night.
The first rounds of competition in badminton, baseball, basketball, football and volleyball opened play earlier this week. The games officially run from December 1 to 15.
Incredibly for an otherwise arid land, opening ceremony for the games took place under the threat of rain at 55,000-seat Khalifa Stadium. Showers have been intermittent throughout Friday, but the weather should clear for the start of the full competition on Saturday.
Family of Nations, Family of Sports
Despite troubles and unrest in a number of Asian nations, every one of the 45 OCA member nations will send delegations. That includes Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Palestine and Timor Leste.
The Koreas marched in opening ceremony as a joint team, while progress is said to have been made towards resolving issues for a unified team at the Beijing Olympics. A meeting coming Saturday between representatives from the IOC, North Korea and South Korea may break the deadlock over how to select athletes for a unified team.
More than 10,500 athletes will take part in these 15th Asian Games, making the games the second-largest multi-sport event outside the Olympics. And with 39 sports and 424 different competitions, the program is bigger by a third than the Summer Olympics.
The Asian Games are held under the auspices and direction of the Olympic Council of Asia, which plans to use Doha as a springboard to launch a branding campaign for the continental association.
The program for Doha 2006 includes all of the Olympic sports plus bodybuilding, bowling, chess, cue sports such as billiards and snooker, golf, kabaddi, rugby, sepaktakraw, soft tennis, squash and wushu.
Olympic Implications in Doha
Olympic hopes are riding in Doha -- for the aspirations of Qatar to host the 2016 Olympics, as well as the three cities campaigning here for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
PyeongChang, Salzburg and Sochi will each have five minutes to make a pitch to the OCA General Assembly during Saturday?s session. Look for on the scene coverage of the presentations at www.aroundtherings.com.
Qatar Olympic leaders have not been shy in stating their ambitions to hold the 2016 Olympics, so the next two weeks in Doha may make or break the credibility of an Olympic bid.
Stadiums and arenas will wow all. Khalifa Stadium, with its dramatic canopy and Aspire, the mega-campus array of indoor arenas and courts that may be unrivalled globally, show that Qatar has the resources to build for the Games.
Transport, the organization of the competition, atmosphere and attendance are the acid tests that await Doha. As has been noted widely, these games are the first for the Middle East, first for a nation of just 800,000 people. Enough to fill the stands? Enough to field teams in 26 or more sports should Doha win a bid?
With free parking around the stadium for the opening ceremony (un-heard of for an Olympics) organizers are urging patience on the part of spectators coming and going to the big show. Lacking a mass transit system, the Doha Games are dependent on four-wheel vehicles and some buses to move people around.
Watching this experience closely are more than 50 IOC members. Many are from Asia, but there is an influential contingent from Europe, Africa and the Americas that includes the IOC President and the heads of every federation on the Asian Games program.
Taking 2016 notes as well are IOC members and NOC leaders from Brazil and Japan, where Rio De Janeiro and Tokyo have both been formally approved as the national candidates, the only cities to have taken that step so far.
Representatives from the U.S. are also in Doha, part of efforts of the U.S. Olympic Committee to bolster relations worldwide, as much as seek a 2016 Olympic bid. Anita DeFrantz is seeking support in her candidacy for the IOC Executive Board, while international relations director Bob Fasulo meets with his counterparts from Asia.
Look of the City, Athlete's Village
Huge wraps for some of Doha's skyscrapers featuring Asian Games sports (including chess) are a part of the look of Doha 2006 that has spread throughout the city.
The Athletes' Village, a collection of new apartment blocks near the shoreline in the center of the city, is described as better than the Athens Olympic Village.
"If that was five star, this is six stars," Abdul Ghani Tabbalat, the Jordan Olympic Committee secretary general tells Around the Rings, complimenting the Doha organizers on the size and quality of the accommodations the athletes are receiving.
The International Zone of the village includes the usual features, such as retail stores, a coffee shop and a very popular internet lounge. Nearly every one of the dozens of terminals are in use.
After the Games, part of the complex will become housing, other parts a new hospital.
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