Sports & Community
Working to preserve and expand the collaborative relationship between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States (US).
The 2019 World Games represent a milestone, but there is much more to do. Fifty years after Special Olympics began in Chicago, the movement continues to strive for a better world.
– UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba and Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver, March 2019
Special Olympics
Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba has long advocated for inclusion and equal rights in the UAE and throughout the Middle East. Taking action on efforts to promote inclusion, the Ambassador played a key role in organizing the 2019 Special Olympics World Games in the UAE. Not only was this the first World Games to take place in the Middle East, it is also the largest to date, with more than 7,500 athletes from 190 countries — 19 of which had never sent teams before. Following the 2019 games, Yousef Al Otaiba joined the Special Olympics Board of Directors.
Ambassador Al Otaiba has remained an active supporter of the Special Olympics and continues to be directly engaged with athletes and events. Prior to the 2023 World Games in Berlin, the Ambassador held a celebratory ceremony spotlighting the Special Olympics organization and its impact on inclusion worldwide. He also visited with athletes both prior to and during the 2019 and 2023 World Games and has congratulated athletes at the White House.
The Community Soccer Program
Yousef Al Otaiba has been a fan — and player — of soccer nearly his whole life. So when the opportunity arose to spread his love for the game in communities around the US, he jumped at the chance. Since 2010, the UAE Embassy’s Community Soccer Program has helped develop soccer fields for underserved communities in major cities around the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Washington, DC, among others. The program partners with local organizations, such as Boys & Girls Clubs, to create the fields. Through the Community Soccer Program, children gain the opportunity to learn valuable skills both on and off the field while having a safe place to play.
People talk about policy and politics a lot, but being on this field with the kids shows that this relationship is much broader and goes much farther beyond just the policy and politics of [the UAE-US] bilateral relationship.
– Yousef Al Otaiba on the local impact of the UAE – US relationship, June 2018
