Qatar (QAT)

The National Olympic Committee of Qatar was formed on 14 March 1979 and provisionally recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1980 at the IOC session in Moskva. Qatar made its initial Olympic appearance in Los Angeles in 1984 with a team of eight track & field athletes, a football (soccer) team, and four shooters. Qatar has appeared at every Olympics since. The Gulf nation won its first Olympic medal in 1992 when Mohamed Sulaiman finished third in the men’s 1,500 metres in track & field athletics. In 2000, Asaad Said Saif added another bronze, won in the 105 kg class weightlifting. At recent Olympics, Qatar has fielded a number of athletes that have been “obtained” from other nations, notably Kenyan runners and Bulgarian weightlifters. The aforementioned Asaad Said Saif, for examples, was born under the name Angel Popov. Doha, Qatar bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, but was eliminated before the final vote.

Qatar has competed in 9 Olympic Games but had no female athletes prior to 2012 and this was a point of contention with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Women were not allowed to compete for Qatar because of religious restrictions. This is in violation of the Olympic Charter, but no sanctions were ever given and Qatar had women on their Olympic teams in 2012 and 2016.