I am truly honoured to be here with you today for this special purpose in these special grounds, home of Olympism. The invitation to attend such an important gathering and to address the future leaders of our Olympic world has filled me with excitement and hope!

Our own time to serve the Olympic Movement will eventually be judged by how we have made this world better, how we have handed it over to those that can do better, how the flame will remain alive.

Coming from a country and a region that is rapidly growing in sport and in the Olympic Movement, I am privileged to have studied myself the Olympic values and proud to have found ways to serve them locally, regionally and internationally.

Through the 43 annual international sport events that we host in Qatar and with the many programs and projects that we have initiated, we look every day to ways of spreading the Olympic values. Joy of effort, fair play, respect for others, pursuit of excellence, balance between body, will and mind... All of these values fit perfectly within our National Vision 2030 for social and human development. We make an effort that they become key to our society in creating healthy personalities. We do our best to make them be more than nice words put together.

It is incredible that already in 776 BCE in ancient Olympia mankind had the wisdom to create the Olympic Games and to place the Olympic values in the hearts and minds of people. What is even more incredible is that thousands years later, we still serve the same values. Human development goes hand in hand with the Olympic values in ways that we sometimes do not notice.

It was not only a chapter in history but also a ground-breaking milestone when the first woman competed for the first time (in Paris in the 2nd edition of Olympic Games 1900). And when the Olympic Games were open to people from all races and all nationalities, with the famous examples of John Taylor in London 1908 and Jesse Owens in Berlin 1936, when people with disabilities had the opportunity to participate through the Paralympic Games (remembering the Silent Games of Paris in 1924 with the first competition of deaf people and the first Paralympic Games in Rome 1960), when countries had to respect their co-existence and respect the truce during the Olympic Games.

I am a great fan of the work of the International Olympic Academy and the Olympic Truce Centre. Olympic Truce inspires mankind to not only respect but also practice peace! An ancient tradition that has lived through times.

Our duty within the Olympic Movement is to support the universality of the Games. To ensure that everyone is included. To take the flame further into the hearts of people.

Did you ever wonder why the Olympic rings are round and not square, how there are no corners for some to be isolated, how everyone is embraced by everyone! And how these rings touch and chain with each other. Simply, an amazing way to express diversity and universality.

There are times when we get confused and think that diversity is a bad thing. On the contrary! Diversity is what makes our world so beautiful. Look at you... the young participants... coming from different countries, nationalities, ethnic groups, representing different cultures, practicing different religions, serving mankind in different ways. Our world is so rich! We should not deny this diversity BUT we should make all the necessary arrangements to have equal opportunities. We should include everyone at all times.

An athlete is never judged by any criteria apart from his or her performance and our duty is to make sure athletes from around the globe are there to perform and excel. Excellence is totally independent of what your name is, where you are coming from, what your background is.

Think of the greatest athletes. Does it really matter where they are from, what their name is, what their race is? Really, no! Excellence cannot be hidden behind titles, cultures or deceptive appearances...

As I am representing a rising region in sport, I can tell you how inspired we are by the different nationalities, races, religions, genders, opinions that we have in Qatar. There are more than 70 nationalities residing in our country, a fact that makes us very diverse and colourful. We are building world-class venues, sport facilities, Olympic Parks and playgrounds that bring sport closer to people.

One day every year we have a public holiday, declared by His Highness the Emir as the National Sport Day, where the entire population is encouraged to participate in sport. This day is for everybody, irrespective of nationality, gender and race. Everyone competes with everyone.

We are specially proud of the Schools Olympic Program, which is open to all schools in Qatar, whether public, private, local or international. Pupils participate in sport competitions of different Olympic sports for a period of five months each year. This year we have the finals in March at the unique Aspire Dome.

In parallel, the programmes run theme activities which directly serve the Olympic values as we bring awareness and participation in the fields of: environment, culture, education, integrity, peace.

Our long list of events is carefully selected to ensure that, whether as athletes or as participants or as spectators, we give the opportunity to different groups to be engaged.

I will give you an example: our selection to host the World Boxing Championships in 2015 was made for different reasons than the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2018. Different groups of people would associate with these events, different social objectives would be met. All for a diverse and healthy society.

Last, on this occasion, I would like to highlight the valuable cooperation of the Olympic Solidarity and the International Olympic Academy in our efforts to develop the Qatar Olympic Academy, which will serve the Olympic values by bringing awareness and education to the people of the country and of the region.

As our Academy aims to be the centre of excellence of Sport education in the Arab world, with the convenience of the courses being in the Arab language.

I look to the young participants who are here and place in your hands my hope for an even more equal and united Olympic Movement.

I hope our experiences will add some inspiration to your future and I look forward to be your number one supporter.

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H.E. the Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman AL-THANI, "Olympic values: Respect for Diversity", in: K. Georgiadis(ed.), Olympic values: Respect for diversity, 54th International Session for Young Participants (Ancient Olympia, 15-29/6/2014), International Olympic Academy, Athens, 2015, pp.59-64.

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