The 2019

World Beach Games The ANOC World Beach Games, known simply as the ''World Beach Games'', is an international multi-sport event organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). The games are held wikt:Special:Search/biennially, biennially in odd-n ...

, () officially known as the ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 and commonly known as Qatar 2019, was the inaugural edition of the international

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

and

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

organized by the

Association of National Olympic Committees The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) is an international organization that affiliates the current 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Every two years, it gathers all it ...

(ANOC). It was held for five days from 11 to 16 October 2019, in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, with 110 medals contested across 14 disciplines. It had originally been scheduled to be hosted in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, 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. In June 2019, Doha was announced as the last-minute replacement host city.

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

were the best performing nation, claiming seven gold medals ahead of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

's five; hosts

finished with one medal (silver). ANOC declared the event a success; a survey of the participating NOCs rated the Games an average of 8.65 out of 10.

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. Five cities ultimately put bids forward: two cities in the United States (

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

) as well as

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, and an undisclosed

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

city.

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

had also previously expressed interest. San Diego emerged as the preferred bidder and was subject to a vote by the

ANOC The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) is an international organization that affiliates the current 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Every two years, it gathers all it ...

General Assembly at a meeting in

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, on 30 October 2015; the result was the unanimous approval of the city to be hosts of the inaugural Games. The Games were originally scheduled to be held from 29 September to 9 October 2017. However, on 5 August 2016, the event was announced as postponed until 2019 to allow for more preparation time. 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) to hold the Games in the city. ANOC immediately began negotiations to find replacement hosts. Just two weeks later, on 14 June 2019,

was announced as the new host city, after ANOC was assured of funding from the country's government. 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.

Development and preparation

Venues

*Katara Beach (3x3 basketball, kitefoil racing, open water swimming, aquathlon, individual kata, beach wrestling, beach tennis, beach soccer) *

Al Gharrafa Al Gharrafa () is a Qatari district of Al Rayyan City, which is located in the municipality of Al Rayyan. In close proximity to Education City and constituting a part of the Doha Metropolitan Area, the Doha Expressway and Al Shamal Highway run a ...

(beach handball, beach volleyball) *

Aspire Zone Aspire Zone, also known as Doha Sports City, is a sporting complex located in the Baaya district of Al Rayyan (city), Al Rayyan, Qatar. Owned by the Aspire Zone Foundation, it was established as an international sports destination in 2003 and ...

(bouldering, skateboarding) * Legtafiya Lagoon (waterski jump, wakeboard)

The Games

Sports

The 2019 ANOC World Beach Games featured 14 disciplines in 13 sports. 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 #* # Football #* # Handball #* # Karate #* # Sailing #* # Skateboarding #* # Sport climbing #* # Swimming #* # Tennis #* # Triathlon #* # Volleyball #* # Waterskiing #* #* # Wrestling #* ''Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline.''

Scrapped sports

BMX freestyle Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of four disciplines: street, park, trails, and flatland. The sport made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics. E ...

and

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

had also been on the original programme 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. 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 The International Surfing Association (ISA) is the world governing authority for surfing, SUP racing, SUP surfing, para surfing, bodyboarding and all other wave riding activities. The ISA is recognized by the International Olympic Committee. ...

(ISA) and ANOC agreed to cancel the planned event due to a busy calendar.

Participating National Olympic Committees (NOCs)

Of the world's 206 NOCs, 97 competed:

Calendar

:''All dates are

AST AST, Ast, or ast may refer to: Science and technology * Attention schema theory, of consciousness or subjective awareness Computing * Abstract syntax tree, a finite, labeled, directed tree used in computer science * Anamorphic stretch transform, ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

)''

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.

References

External links

Results book
{{DEFAULTSORT:2019 World Beach Games

International sports competitions hosted by Qatar Multi-sport events in Qatar

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Sports competitions in Doha

21st century in Doha