General Aly, How do you evaluate the idea of the Youth Olympic Games, (YOG)?
In Moscow in 1997 there was a gathering of the International Olympic Committee, (IOC) where the subject was Youth. Since then the idea of establishing a Youth Olympics grew. Because the Youth represent the future, they must be prepared. If there is a Youth Olympics the performance of athletes in the regular Olympics will improve because of their preparation and experience in the Youth Olympics so the IOC decided to hold a youth Olympics. This experience is enhanced because all of the participants in the YOG;athletes, referees, judges, coaches, trainers and other officials must stay at the site for the entire period of the games to live the whole experience and absorb the value of sports in general and the Olympic spirit in particular.
At first the IOC thought that medals should not be awarded during the YOG but in the end they changed their minds and medals will be awarded so that the feeling of victory is complete both for the individual athlete and for the country they represent. I think the YOG is a very good step and a positive movement in the history of sports.

Can you tell us about the Egyptian delegation to the YOG; how big is it compared to other participating countries and what your expectations are for the results?
The Egyptian delegation is one of the biggest delegations participating. They are definitely the biggest from the Arab countries and probably Africa as well. It consists of 42 male and 32 female athletes who will compete in 17 different sports. In addition
there are 11 officials and managers. The head of the delegation is Dr. Alaa Gabr who is also the head of the Egyptian Archery Federation. The vice chairman is Dr. Mona Abdel Kareem who is a member of the Egyptian Olympic Committee and a former athlete.

Egypt only participated in 14 sports during the recent African Youth Games in Morocco, which was good preparation for those 14 teams before the YOG.In those game Egypt won 30 gold, 18 silver and six bronze medals In the YOG I expect at least five medals in different sports because I have great expectation for our athletes in sports like weightlifting, wrestling and the martial arts. The results during the qualifications give me confidence that they will do well in the YOG.It is very interesting that in the age group that is eligible for the YOG, under 18 years old, Egyptian athletes always do well in international competitions. But, when they pass 18, in some sports the results are not as good. This may be because after 18 they are either in University where they do not have enough time in the midst of their studies or after university they have to work hard to earn a good living and do not have the luxury of time to participate in sports.

Was it a difficult decision to go to Singapore with such a big delegation and having expectation of only five medals?
Not at all. There is a difference between the Youth Games and the main Olympics. The protocols of the IOC and sports in general say that the young have to participate to get the experience and Egypt wants to be in the lead, to be a role model for other nations in the region. We have to send our boys and girls to gain experience and learn Olympic values and we must support them. It is very difficult for an athlete to become an Olympic champion suddenly or in his first participation. This is the first Youth Olympics and there are more than 200 countries taking part. Of course, all these 200 countries are not expecting to come home
with medals but they are encouraging their young athletes to take part to be there for the experience.
This will be very good preparation for the youth, not necessarily for the 2012 Olympics in London but these Youth Games will be a real preparation for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We are taking all the athletes that qualified regardless of expectations of medals which was not an easy decision to make either, but with the understanding and support of Eng. Hassan Sakr, Head of the National Sports Council, who is a former competitive athlete himself and understands the situation.If we don’t participate as fully as we can we will go backwards and other nations will pass us because we will not gain the experience necessary to help our athletes to perform better next time.

You spoke before about the athletes losing some of their skills when they go to university because they don’t have the time to keep them at top level. What happened to the protocol between the Ministry for Sport and the Ministry of Education that was supposed to provide sports championships that are attending university time to train and attend camps and competitions and to have exams that conflict with major events to be taken at another time?
There is actually more than one protocol, but the problem is that the effectiveness of the protocols gets lost when you have had many changes in the government at the ministerial level and the level of the senior department heads in this ministries and
the incoming minister or department head does not necessarily agree with what his predecessor had done so the athlete suffers while they go back to the beginning. This is also true in the universities as well. Different deans and head of colleges can
have different interpretations of what the protocol requires. The Olympic committee along with Eng.Sakr are making every effort to make the protocol effective and to work on improving it with the Ministry of Education.

When you became head of the Egyptian Olympic Committee almost one year ago, we read and heard from the Egyptian sports media some quotes from you that some people considered negative. You were reported as saying that you are not expecting any
medals for Egypt in the 2012 Olympics in London. What are your comments regarding that situation?
I did not say that at the time. What I did say was that I cannot tell what Egypt will do. After I had been appointed and was new in the job, journalists started asking how Egypt will do at the Olympics. With only a few weeks as Chairman, I had not had the time to
research the statistics, what each athlete in each sport had achieved, how well was he or she qualified, how did they perform and in what level of competition.Whether the athlete has won on the regional or continental level is not the same as winning a world
championship or a major international event like the Olympics. There is a huge difference. I did not have that kind of information at that date and even now I could not give a good answer because I don’t know who will qualify. The media can ask but I will not give a quick answer without the facts.

Do you feel that if you make promises about good results and they don’t happen that it will hurt the committee or cause problems for it?
No, not at all. What will happen? Our responsibility is just supervising the federations and making sure that; they meet standards, are spending money in the right way, that training is done properly and achieves the technical requirements. We must give the federations whatever support they require. We are not involved in the federations’ business. The technical part of preparing the athletes for competition is pure federation business.

We don’t interfere in their 34 Sports & Fitness/August 2010 business so how can people say at the end that the committee failed or succeeded? You have to remember that when an athlete wins a medal, it is the result of more than ten years of hard effort on the part of the federation. It does not come from a year or two of good planning. It is long term preparation and hard work and the responsibility of each federation.
The process actually starts with the sports clubs.Here the athlete starts at a young age learning his or her sport and works to make the club team. Then they compete in leagues or at government tournaments and where the federations can sport high performing
athletes and start grooming them for the national teams by elevating level of their training and entering them higher levels of competition.This all happens away from the Olympic Committee.

General Aly, are the responsibilities of the Olympic committees the same all over the world, or is Egypt a different case?
It is the same all over the world. You go anywhere and you will find that the Olympic Committee is responsible for supervision, support and controlling the funding without interfering in the technical details. We follow up to make sure the federation’s planning is realistic and that they are following the plan and the funding is correct in cooperation with the National Sports Council.
There are differences in other areas around the world in the system but not in the Olympic Committee responsibility. In countries like the US, China and even some European countries, they do not have clubs like they do in Egypt. They have a system where the young children start to play sports in primary school. Here he starts to discover his skills and where he can fit. When
he goes to high school he continues to improve and if he is good enough he participates in school leagues. In university the process continues and he plays in interuniversity leagues. After university if he has the skill he can turn professional. At any point along the system the federations can recognise his skills and bring the athlete into the national teams.

Can you tell us what the budget is for the preparation of the 17 sports teams that will represent Egypt in the first YOG in Singapore?
It is five million Egyptian Pounds.

Since this is your first interview with Sports & Fitness magazine since you assumed the post of President of the Olympic Committee General Aly, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about subjects away from the YOG. Let’s talk about the Mediterranean Games. Egypt participated in the bidding to host the Mediterranean Games for the year 2017. Can you give us a hint about the Egyptian file and tell me how happy you are with the bid?                                                                                 We presented a very good file it is very strong. The bid book itself was prepared by a German Company that specialises in this field. I personally believe that these games should come back to Egypt because Egypt is the producer of the games. They were originally proposed by Mohamed Taher Pasha and the first Mediterranean tournament was held in Alexandria, Egypt in 1951 and
it has not come back to Egypt for 66 years so now it is about time. Especially when you consider that there was a sort of agreement that the games would be hosted for two consecutive tournaments by countries on the North shore of the Mediterranean in Europe and then one on the southern shore before it goes back to Europe. The last two Games were held in Europe, in
Almeria, Spain and Pescara, Italy. The 2013 games will be in Volos and Larissa, Greece. And for 2017 the only bids from the south came from Egypt and Libya. I think Egypt’s strong background in sports will allow it to win the bid to host the Games. 

General Aly, are we ready to host such an event?
Yes, of course. Almost 70 percent of the required facilities, halls stadia and other infrastructure are already there in Alexandria. The military has already started to build a complete Olympic complex with six big arenas for different sports just 30 kilometres from the heart of Alexandria which is considered a very good location for transportation and communications.There are already good football stadia, the Borg El Arab stadium and the Alexandria stadium which are built to international standards. The Olympic
committee will be visiting Alexandria in September to inspect progress.

Let me also ask you about the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Egyptian Olympic Committee. It was founded in 1910 and in 1912 it joined the International Olympic Committee. How do you plan to celebrate this anniversary?
We are going to have a big celebration at the end of this year. We have already invited all of the members of the Executive Board of the Olympic Committee and of course Dr. Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC will be here. We also invited many international sports figures and champions. During the celebration we will honour the Egyptian Olympians who have won medals in past games. We have seven gold medal winners, seven silver medal winners and 10 bronze.
Some of them have passed away but we will still honour them through family members that are living and we will also honour past Presidents of the Egyptian Olympic Committee starting from Prince Omar Tosson, the first president of the Egyptian Olympic Committee through General Mounir Sabet the ex- president. We are working hard to have an exciting and interesting event that will always bring fond memories.