15th Asian Games

KUWAIT -- Asian sport has taken giant strides and the Beijing Olympics will be a watershed for the region as it moves down the path to superpower status, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) believes.

China is driving the rapid improvements in Asia's sporting prowess and hauling the rest of the region up with it, he says.

"From the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 to Athens in 2004 we have found there are a lot more champions from Asia," Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who has been president of the OCA since 1991, told Agence France-Presse in an interview.

"China is now second behind the United States in the medal stakes and Japan and Korea are up there.

"In 2004 there were almost 30 National Olympic Councils from Asia that won medals. This is a very encouraging development."

"I think in Beijing in 2008 Asia will jump from its current situation to an advanced stage where an Asian nation may well top the medal table."

That nation will be China, which is pulling out all the stops to excel on home territory next year, with the ultimate goal being to topple the United States.

The fact that China is so dominant in Asia is not a hindrance to other regional countries. Rather, it motivates them, said Sheikh Ahmad.

"Everyone knows that China is a sporting superpower. Always they have around 30 percent of the Asian Games gold medals but I think this is good because it encourages all the other nations and athletes to develop to this level," he said.

"When they do this, we will find many more Asian countries at the top. We have many, many prospects."

"Sometimes, psychologically, it is very difficult to beat the US athletes but if Asian countries see China doing it, it will encourage them. It can only help to upgrade our level."

When Sheikh Ahmad, a former army officer and Kuwaiti energy minister, took over at the OCA, it was a shadow of what it is today. But he learnt lessons from former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The 44-year-old, born in Beirut, attributes the professionalism of the Olympic movement to the aging Spaniard.

"Since 1991 when I first took over, the nature of sports has changed, mostly through the work of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch who helped change the nature of the Games to be more professional," he said.

"We at the OCA started to develop in a professional way too and with the help of the national sporting bodies we had the successful Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994, Bangkok in 1998 and Busan in 2002."

"Throughout these Games we succeeded in bringing the OCA and sport to a higher standard."

"Doha (in 2006) put us on a new stage of professionalism."

In a bid to broaden the reach of sport in Asia and take some of the strain off the Asian Games, which now has 39 sports to the 28 contested at the Olympics, the OCA will stage its first Beach Games in Bali next year.

It has also established an Asian Indoor Games, with the first event in Bangkok in 2005 and the next in Macau this year. The plan is to eventually shift some of the Asiad sports to these events.

"We have a lot of bidding cities for these Games," he said.

"We plan to hold them every two years to make sure they grow. What we want to have is a major Games every year -- the Asian Games followed by the Asian Winter Games, then the Indoor Games and the Beach Games."

"We hope it will help Asian sport to grow."

"For athletes, income, marketing, funding, Games organization -- you have to have a goal and a strategy. This is our goal and our strategy, to be the best."