2019 World Beach Games
The 2019 World Beach Games, (Arabic: 2019 ألعاب شاطئ العالم) officially known as the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 and commonly known as Qatar 2019, was the inaugural edition of the international beach and water multi-sport event organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). It was held for five days from 11 to 16 October 2019, in Doha, Qatar, with 110 medals contested across 14 disciplines.
 | |
| Host city | Doha |
|---|---|
| Country |  Qatar |
| Nations | 97 |
| Athletes | 1,237 |
| Events | 36 in 13 sports (14 disciplines) |
| Opening | 12 October |
| Closing | 16 October |
| Opened by | Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani[1] |
| Website | www |
It had originally been scheduled to be hosted in San Diego, United States in 2017. However, after first being postponed to 2019, the Games were then relocated as the city had not generated sufficient private funds needed to stage the event.[2] In June 2019, Doha was announced as the last-minute replacement host city.
Spain were the best performing nation, claiming seven gold medals ahead of Brazil's five; hosts Qatar finished with one medal (silver).[3] ANOC declared the event a success; a survey of the participating NOCs rated the Games an average of 8.65 out of 10.[4]
Host selection
The application process to host the Games was opened in July 2015 with a deadline of the end of the month for submissions.[5] Five cities ultimately put bids forward: two cities in the United States (San Diego, California and Sarasota, Florida) as well as Sochi, Russia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and an undisclosed Chinese city.[6] Barcelona, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey had also previously expressed interest.[7] San Diego emerged as the preferred bidder and was subject to a vote by the ANOC General Assembly at a meeting in Washington, D.C., on 30 October 2015;[6] the result was the unanimous approval of the city to be hosts of the inaugural Games.[8][9]
| I World Beach Games bidding results | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Nation | Votes | ||||
| San Diego |  United States |
Unanimous | ||||
| Dubai |  United Arab Emirates |
— | ||||
| Sarasota | United States |
— | ||||
| Sochi |  Russia |
— | ||||
| Undisclosed |  China |
— | ||||
The Games were originally scheduled to be held from 29 September to 9 October 2017.[10] However, on 5 August 2016, the event was announced as postponed until 2019 to allow for more preparation time.[11] Then, on 30 May 2019, ANOC stripped San Diego of its hosting rights, after the local organisers failed to generate enough private funding (reportedly $40 million)[12] to hold the Games in the city.[13]
ANOC immediately began negotiations to find replacement hosts.[2] Just two weeks later, on 14 June 2019, Doha, Qatar was announced as the new host city, after ANOC was assured of funding from the country's government.[14] This left just four months for Doha to prepare to stage the Games before the scheduled October start date but successfully delivered the event on time.[15]
Development and preparation
Venues
- Katara Beach (3x3 basketball, kitefoil racing, open water swimming, aquathlon, individual kata, beach wrestling, beach tennis, beach soccer)
- Al Gharrafa (beach handball, beach volleyball)
- Aspire Zone (bouldering, skateboarding)
- Legtafiya Lagoon (waterski jump, wakeboard)
The Games
Sports
The 2019 ANOC World Beach Games featured 14 disciplines in 13 sports.[16] All of the events in this edition were non-Olympic events, i.e., different from events in previous Summer Olympic programs, and were gender equal.
- Basketball
3x3 basketball (2) ()
- Football
Beach soccer (2) ()
- Handball
Beach handball (2) ()
- Karate
Karate (2) ()
- Sailing
Kiteboarding (2) ()
- Skateboarding
- Sport climbing
Bouldering (2) ()
- Swimming
Open water swimming (2) ()
- Tennis
Beach tennis (2) ()
- Triathlon
Aquathlon (3) ()
- Volleyball
_pictogram.svg.png.webp)
4x4 beach volleyball (2) ()
- Waterskiing
Wakeboarding (2) ()
Waterski jumping (2) ()
- Wrestling
Beach wrestling (8) ()
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline.
Scrapped sports
BMX freestyle and surfing had also been on the original programme[16] but were removed. The former was confirmed as scrapped in January 2019 as a cost-cutting measure when the Games were still due to be held in San Diego.[17] The latter was unable to be held in Doha due to a lack of suitable waves; ANOC still planned to have the surfing take place at a later date, under the Games' branding, and likely to be in the original venue of San Diego. However, in February 2020, the International Surfing Association (ISA) and ANOC agreed to cancel the planned event due to a busy calendar.[18]
Participating National Olympic Committees (NOCs)
Of the world's 206 NOCs, 97 competed:[19][20]
| Participating National Olympic Committees |
|---|
|
.svg.png.webp){kind=small}
Calendar
| OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Event finals | CC | Closing ceremony |
| October 2019 | 11th Fri |
12th Sat |
13th Sun |
14th Mon |
15th Tue |
16th Wed |
Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies | OC | CC | — | |||||
| Triathlon – Aquathlon
| 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| Basketball – 3x3 basketball
| ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | |||
| Sport climbing – Bouldering
| ● | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Handball – Beach handball
| ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | |
| Karate – Individual kata
| ● | 2 | 2 | |||||
 Sailing – Kitefoil racing
| ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
 Skateboarding – Park
| 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Football – Beach soccer
| ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | ||
| Swimming – Open water
| 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Tennis – Beach tennis
| ● | ● | ● | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Beach volleyball – 4x4
| ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | ||
| Waterskiing – Waterski Jump
| ● | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Waterskiing – Wakeboard
| ● | 2 | 2 | |||||
 Wrestling – Beach wrestling
| 4 | 4 | 8 | |||||
Medal table
In February 2021, two medal winning athletes (one from Iran and one from Nigeria) were found guilty of doping offences committed at the Games. They were stripped of their medals which were subsequently reallocated.[21][22][23]
* Host nation (Qatar)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Spain (ESP) | 7 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 |  Brazil (BRA) | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| 3 |  Italy (ITA) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | United States (USA) | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| 5 |  Japan (JPN) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 | Russia (RUS) | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 7 |  Georgia (GEO) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 |  France (FRA) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 |  Belarus (BLR) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 10 |  Netherlands (NED) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
 Turkey (TUR) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 12 |  Germany (GER) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 13 |  Colombia (COL) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Denmark (DEN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Nigeria (NGR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Pakistan (PAK) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 17 |  Azerbaijan (AZE) | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| 18 |  Hungary (HUN) | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 19 |  Ukraine (UKR) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 20 | China (CHN) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 Iran (IRI) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 23 |  Australia (AUS) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Chinese Taipei (TPE) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Finland (FIN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Poland (POL) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Puerto Rico (PUR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Qatar (QAT)* | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Switzerland (SUI) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 31 |  Romania (ROU) | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 32 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Canada (CAN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Chile (CHI) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Dominican Republic (DOM) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Hong Kong (HKG) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Indonesia (INA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Mongolia (MGL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Slovenia (SLO) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Venezuela (VEN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (40 entries) | 36 | 36 | 38 | 110 | |
References
- "Spectacular Opening Ceremony marks official start of the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019". ANOC. 13 October 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- Weisberg, Lori (30 May 2019). "San Diego loses inaugural World Beach Games due to lack of private funding". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- "Golden finish to memorable ANOC World Beach Games". ANOC. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- Burke, Patrick (4 October 2022). "Lindberg says survey results shows ANOC World Beach Games "a very good, successful event"". Inside the Games. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- Butler, Nick (8 July 2015). "Fifteen sports to feature at first ANOC World Beach Games as host city application process opens". Inside the Games. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
- Butler, Nick (27 October 2015). "Exclusive: San Diego set to be awarded first ANOC World Beach Games in 2017". Inside the Games. Washington D.C. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- "San Diego To Host Inaugural World Beach Games In 2017". KPBS Public Media. 30 October 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- "San Diego Awarded Inaugural 2017 ANOC World Beach Games". ANOC. 30 October 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- Garske, Monica (30 October 2015). "San Diego Chosen as Host City for Inaugural 'World Beach Games'". NBC San Diego. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- Long, Michael (7 December 2015). "ANOC LAUNCHES COMMERCIAL RIGHTS RFP FOR ANOC WORLD BEACH GAMES - SportsPro". SportsPro. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ANOC postpones inaugural World Beach Games - Sport Business, 5 August 2016
- Butler, Nick (29 October 2017). "Inaugural ANOC World Beach Games in San Diego in 2019 set to be on smaller scale than first planned". Inside the Games. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- MacKay, Duncan (30 May 2019). "ANOC World Beach Games to be relocated from San Diego". Inside the Games. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- Morgan, Liam (14 June 2019). "Qatar to replace San Diego as hosts of 2019 ANOC World Beach Games". Inside the Games. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- "QOC celebrates one year anniversary of ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019". Around the Rings. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- "ANOC confirm 15 sports and 17 disciplines for first World Beach Games". 24 May 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- Pavitt, Michael (22 January 2019). "BMX freestyle axed from first ANOC World Beach Games in San Diego". Inside the Games. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- Pavitt, Michael (18 February 2020). "Organisers confirm postponed World Beach Games surfing event will not take place". Inside the Games. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- "PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES". ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019. Archived from the original on 4 September 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
- "Awbg 2019".
- Pavitt, Michael (12 February 2021). "NOC strips wrestlers Rahmani and Genesis of World Beach Games medals". Inside the Games. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- "ANOC disqualifies results of two beach wrestlers from ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 for anti-doping offences". Around the Rings. 12 February 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- "Qatar 2019 Medals". ANOC. Retrieved 14 August 2022.