Manama is going to be ablaze with young dynamos this October as Bahrain is getting ready to host thousands of Asia’s best young talent at the 3rd Asian Youth Games. During a historic meeting chaired by His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa—First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee—the major plans were approved to put the Kingdom in the limelight on the continental map.
Looking back at a record-breaking 46-year sojourn, HH Shaikh Khalid kicked off the session thanking Bahrain’s sporting federations for their gold-encrusted first half of 2025. Competition performers, ranging from middle-distance runners to taekwondo giants, have already marked Bahrain’s charge to rise even higher on the Olympic podium. With the Asian Youth Games scheduled October 22–31 in Manama, planning now shifts to remodeling Khalifa Sports City as a thriving nexus for swimming, athletics, boxing, and many more.
Outside of the competition venues, Bahrain is also leveraging its strategic location at the center of the Gulf. In collaboration with GFH Financial Group, Bahrain plans to construct an International Center of Excellence and a Regional Aquatic Sports Office—complexes designed to attract world-class training camps and facilitate sport science research. You may not be aware that Bahrain hosted for the first time ever in the Gulf region the FIBA Congress and Hall of Fame Ceremony last month. Having achieved that, it has paved the way for even greater opportunities.
Planning for 2028, the board prioritized developing talent in the new sports—consider BMX freestyle, 3×3 basketball, and sport climbing—to position Bahrain as a better medal winner in Los Angeles. In parallel, the Bahrain Olympic Academy will introduce certified courses in collaboration with the International Olympic Academy under the leadership of Shaikha Dr. Hessa bint Khalid Al Khalifa to empower women sports administrators.
To monitor the dynamism of autumn, Manama will host the Court of Arbitration for Sport between 10–14 November, another ‘first’ for the Kingdom in global sports administration. After an inspirational reprise of HH Shaikh Khaled’s 2024–2028 Equality Committee agenda under the patronage of the Olympic Committee, the event wrapped up in a thunderous challenge: “We will not only host champions—we will forge them.”
