Qatar Opens Huge Sports Museum for World Cup Year

Show and tell: People visit the newly-inaugurated 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum KARIM JAAFAR AFP
Show and tell: People visit the newly-inaugurated 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum KARIM JAAFAR AFP
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Qatar Opens Huge Sports Museum for World Cup Year

Show and tell: People visit the newly-inaugurated 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum KARIM JAAFAR AFP
Show and tell: People visit the newly-inaugurated 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum KARIM JAAFAR AFP

Qatar on Wednesday opened one of the world's biggest sports museums with artefacts from some of the most famous Olympic heroes but also gives prominence to local athletes hoping to boost efforts to attract a new generation into sports.

The 19,000 square meter 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, next to one of the stadiums to be used in this year's World Cup, has taken more than 15 years to get off the planning board and fill.

After scouring private collections and negotiating with the International Olympic Committee and other federations, its 17,000 objects include a glove worn by late boxing giant Muhammed Ali, when he won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, a Ferrari driven by Formula One champion Michael Schumacher and a shirt worn by Brazilian football legend Pele.

There is also a cricket bat that belonged to Indian hero Sachin Tendukar and a torch from each of the modern Olympic Games, according to AFP.

The museum is part of a billion dollar-plus drive by the Qatar government to build the Gulf state into a cultural haven alongside its big spending on sports events.

But museum director Abdulla Al Mulla denied the museum only intended to put the spotlight on Qatar's energy wealth.

"We are not showing off," he told AFP. "We have the confidence, we earned the confidence of international federations."

Al Mulla also said Qatar's ruling family wanted the museum to show off the state's sporting legacy.

Al Thani, a member of the Qatar ruler's extended family who raced from 2003 until 2015, also said the museum was an "icon" through its recording of all Qatar's athletes and their rankings.

"If I knew that there was a wall with a local athlete on it, for sure I would want to be better than that athlete."

"So I will do 110 percent to be on that wall as well. Now I am a target, I am behind there, and so people can work hard and remove my picture and put someone else's on it."



Lion Attacks Woman in Australian Zoo, Severely Injuring her Arm

FILE PHOTO: A view of the city skyline of Brisbane, Australia, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the city skyline of Brisbane, Australia, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy/File Photo
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Lion Attacks Woman in Australian Zoo, Severely Injuring her Arm

FILE PHOTO: A view of the city skyline of Brisbane, Australia, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the city skyline of Brisbane, Australia, July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Jaimi Joy/File Photo

A woman has sustained severe injuries to an arm when she was attacked by a lion at an Australian zoo.

The Darling Downs Zoo in Queensland state said the 50-year-old woman was watching animal keepers working in the zoo’s carnivore precinct before opening hours Sunday morning when she was attacked.

She was flown by helicopter from the rural town of Pilton to the state capital Brisbane where she underwent surgery. Her condition was stable, the zoo said in a statement Sunday. Several news media reported the woman lost the injured arm.

The zoo said staff were working with government workplace safety investigators to determine how the incident happened. The state government confirmed an investigation was underway.

“Inexplicably, at this stage, one animal grabbed her by one arm and caused severe damage to it,” the zoo statement said.

“At no stage did this animal leave its enclosure and there was no risk at all to staff members or members of the public.”

The woman was not a staff member but a “much loved member” of the zoo’s “family,” the statement added, according to The Associated Press.

She had watched keepers at work many times over the past 20 years and was “well versed in safety protocols around potentially dangerous animals,” the zoo said.

Staff at the 48-hectare (119-acre) zoo declined media interviews on Monday.

The zoo planned to reopen Tuesday for the first time since the attack.

“The animal will definitely not be put down or punished in any way,” the statement said.

Five years ago, two lions mauled and critically injured a keeper inside their enclosure at the Shoalhaven Zoo in the state of New South Wales.