Kuwait’s Country Profile

Official country name: State of Kuwait
Area: 6,880 sq miles (17,820 sq km)
Population: 3.2 million (2006 est.), only 950,000 of whom are Kuwaiti citizens. The rest are laborers of Asian or Arab origin.
Median age: 26
Ethnic Groups: Arab 80 percent, South Asian 9 percent, Iranian 4 percent, others 7 percent
GDP and GDP per capita: $102 billion and $32,094 (2006 estimates)

Read a complete country profile of Kuwait

Kuwait’s Olympic History

First time represented at Summer Olympics: 1968
Gold medals won: 0
Silver: 0
Bronze: 1
Athletes at the Beijing Olympics: 8
Number of Sports competing in at Beijing Olympics: 5
Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics: 0

Kuwait’s Olympic Playbook

Judging from the Kuwaiti press, the country isn’t too concerned with its eight Olympians or their fate in Beijing. Three days before the opening ceremonies, the Kuwait Times , which brands itself “The first daily in the Arabian Gulf,” gave its lead sports stories to Andy Murray upset Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in a tennis final, a feature on U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, an article about Lionel Messi of Barcelona, the football club,. Taking over the #10 shirt previously worn by Brazil's Ronaldinho, who was transferred to AC Milan, and yet another feature about American athletes in Beijing (“ Americans eager for success on foreign soil ”). You’d think the Kuwait Times was subbing for the New York Times in the Gulf.

When the Kuwait paper does pay a little attention to its Olympians, it does so obliquely, to put a big spotlight on the team sponsor, a local telecom (no need to give it free publicity here).

Digging around the newspaper’s site by searching by name (the name of Kuwait’s Olympians) produces nothing more than that same article on the telecom sponsorship. Which makes you wonder. Does Kuwait know it’s sending a team to Beijing, and does it care?

Kuwait’s Athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Judo
Talal El-Enezi

Shooting
Abdullah Alrashidi
Nasser Al-Mugled
Zaid Almutairi

Swimming
Mohammed Madoo

Table Tennis
Ibrahim Alhassan

Track & Field/Athletics
Mohammed Alazemi
Ali Zenkawi