Prince Feisal wins sports award

AMMAN – Just days after launching Living Sport, a new national strategy to encourage sport to play a part in the lives of all Jordanians, HRH Prince Feisal, president of the Jordan Olympic Committee (JOC), has been announced as the 2014 recipient of a top US sports award.

Prince Feisal will follow the likes of London 2012 chief Lord Sebastian Coe, actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger and Prince Albert of Monaco as winner of the Eagle Award in recognition of his work as JOC President along with his advocacy for peace through sport as Founder of Generations For Peace, a JOC statement said Sunday.

The Eagle Award, the United States Sports Academy’s highest international honour, is presented annually to a world leader in sport to recognise that individual’s contribution in promoting international harmony, peace and goodwill through the effective use of sport.

Since Prince Feisal founded Generations For Peace in 2007, it has trained more than 8,500 volunteer leaders of youth in 50 countries to lead change in their own communities to address local issues of conflict and violence through the power of sport, arts, advocacy, dialogue and empowerment activities, said the statement.

Generations For Peace is the only peace-through-sport organisation officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee, and is ranked as one of the “Top 100 NGOs in the World” by the Global Journal, based on their assessment of innovation, impact and sustainability.

HRH Princess Haya was a recipient of the Eagle Award in 2010.

The United States Sports Academy’s Award of Sport programme is a long-standing awards programme within the academy, dating back to 1985. 

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, nonprofit, accredited special mission sports university created to serve the nation and the world with programmes in instruction, research and service. The role of the academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.