It felt a bit like a Canadian rink, except it was in Doha.
Inside Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena, curling stones slid across the ice, children and adults took their first skating steps and amateur players faced off in a friendly ice hockey match as Qatar launched the Qatar Canada and Mexico 2026 Year of Culture.
The Winter Sports Development Programme is the first major public event of the year-long initiative, which organisers say is designed to bring people together through shared experiences.
“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, turbulent times,” Canada’s ambassador to Qatar, Karim Morcos, said to EuroNews.
“Culture and sports is what brings humanity together. We bring down the barriers and we show what it’s like to be human.”
Morcos said the partnership was also a chance to show Canada’s identity.
“Canada is a very diverse place… sport and culture are ways to integrate,” he said.
“What I want Qataris to see is the beauty of that, the diversity of Canada.”
For many at the event, it was a first encounter with winter sports as families tried curling, short track speed skating and ice hockey.
Besan Elwadia said that growth in Qatar’s winter sports scene had been deeply personal.
“At the age of 16, I started figure skating and then joined the first national women’s ice hockey team in Qatar,” she said.
“I helped recruit players and we slowly became a team.”
Elwadia is now an assistant coach in the Learn to Play Hockey programme.
“We were able to build this community in Qatar, parents from different countries coming together through one sport,” she said.
“We’ve grown to over 60 kids in the programme.”
She said the draw of winter sport in Qatar was straightforward.
“Sometimes you just need a cool place and a sport to play indoors.”
While sport was the focus of the launch, Morcos said the programme also reflected wider cooperation between Canada and Qatar.
“It’s a new day, a new page in our relationship,” he said, referring to recent agreements including a 10-year plan to deepen ties across political, security and economic sectors.
That cooperation is also feeding into preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which Canada will co-host.
“Qatar had a very successful experience, so we’re looking to them for lessons,” Morcos said.
Mexico’s ambassador to Qatar, Guillermo Ordorica, said the Year of Culture would help strengthen links between the three countries.
“We’re three friendly countries… fostering friendship, cooperation and collaboration,” he said.
He said Qatar was already familiar to many Mexicans after the 2022 World Cup.
“Qatar became very famous in my country… we are certain we will reinforce that very positive view of Qatar as a country with which we share many values.”
The Year of Culture initiative pairs Qatar with partner countries each year and extends across sport, education and community programmes. The Winter Sports Development Programme will run through 2026, with monthly events aimed at building grassroots participation and creating pathways to competition.
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