Qatar Opens A Massive Sports Museum In Honor Of The World Cup
Qatar launched one of the world's largest sports museums on Wednesday, featuring artifacts from some of the world's most famous Olympic heroes as well as local athletes, aiming to enhance attempts to recruit a new generation to sports.
Margaret Mwanzia 
The 19,000 square meter 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, which is located near one of the stadiums that will be used in this year's World Cup, took more than 15 years to complete.
Its 17,000 objects include a glove worn by late boxing legend 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 after scouring private collections and negotiating with the International Olympic Committee and other federations.
A cricket bat belonging to Indian legend Sachin Tendukar is also on display, as well as a flame from each modern Olympic Games.
The museum is part of a multibillion-dollar effort by Qatar's government to transform the Gulf state into a cultural hotspot, in addition to its lavish expenditure on sporting events.
However, museum director Abdulla Al Mulla maintained that the museum's sole purpose was to highlight Qatar's energy wealth.
"We're not braggadocio," he told AFP. "We have the confidence of international federations because we have earned it."
Qatar's royal family, according to Al Mulla, wants the museum to showcase the country's sporting heritage.
Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, who established a speed record by taking a catamaran powerboat to 244 miles (395 kilometers) per hour in 2014, is seen with a prince who has rode horses at the Olympics.
Al Thani, a member of Qatar's ruling family who raced from 2003 to 2015, called the museum an "icon" for its collection of all Qatar's athletes and their rankings.
"If I knew there was a wall with a local athlete on it, I'd want to be better than that athlete," he says. "So I'll give it my all to be on that wall as well. Now I'm a target, I'm hidden, and people can work hard to delete my photo and replace it with someone else's."
The museum was also unique, according to Victoria Cosgrave, curator of the museum's Olympic gallery, since it did not shy away from controversial topics, including drug use by athletes, corruption, and the killing of competitors at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
"I believe one of the major issues we encountered — and this isn't just in Qatar; it's all across the world — was balancing the controversial side of sports, trying to be honest about sport and sportspeople while also wanting to be respectful, honorable, and inspiring," she added.
