Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it has won a bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at a planned mountain resort in the Gulf Arab state’s $500 billion flagship NEOM project.
The Games will take place in Trojena, Neom city, a planned mountain resort that is due to be completed in 2026.
Surrounded by the Sarawat mountains, temperatures are cooler in the region and it aims to be a year-round destination for winter sports.
Neom chief executive Nadhmi Al-Nasr said the venue “will have a suitable infrastructure to create the winter atmosphere in the heart of the desert”.
The tourist destination will have the Gulf’s first outdoor ski resort, a man-made freshwater lake and is planned to be powered by renewable energy.
There will be natural snow on the mountains but some artificial snow will also be used.
It is the latest event to be hosted by Saudi Arabia as they increase their presence in sport – leading to accusations the country is using sport to enhance its reputation following criticism over its human rights record.
In August, British boxer Anthony Joshua fought Oleksandr Usyk in the city of Jeddah, while the controversial LIV Golf league is funded by Saudi Arabia.
تــــــــاريـــــــــــخــــي🚨🚨🚨🚨
— Saudi Olympic & Paralympic Committee (@saudiolympic) October 4, 2022
📝| المجلس الأولمبي الآسيوي يعلن فوز ملف #تروجينا2029 باستضافة دورة الألعاب الآسيوية الشتوية في نسختها التاسعة خلال الجمعية العمومية الـ41 ✅
أهــــــلًا بــكــم في شـــتاء الــسعــودية 🤩❄️ pic.twitter.com/PiYoOzQw2E
In October 2021, a Saudi Arabian-backed £305m takeover of Newcastle United was completed.
The decision to host a winter sports event in Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism too. Madeleine Orr, from Loughborough University’s Sport Ecology Group, told media: “From a business standpoint, it makes complete sense to go to a new market and try to grow winter sport there.”
But she added: “These growth goals are antithetical to environmental goals: there’s no version of a winter sport event in Saudi Arabia that will be sustainable as it will require enormous water and energy resources, indoor sport spaces and an insane amount of travel.”