The 2029 Asian Winter Games will be held in Saudi Arabia in a $500 billion futuristic megacity in the desert that organizers claim would have a year-round winter sports facility.
In a statement after its general assembly meeting in Phnom Penh, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced that “the deserts and mountains of Saudi Arabia will soon be a playground for winter sports.”
The announcement said that the megacity known as NEOM would be the first West Asian city to host the event and noted that the Saudi proposal was “unanimously accepted”.
Since it was first shown in 2017, NEOM has drawn criticism for its extravagant proposals, including flying taxis and robot maids, even as economists and architects have questioned its viability.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented The Line project in NEOM in July, which consists of two parallel buildings covered in mirrors that span 170 kilometers of mountainous and arid territory.
According to the project website, the Asian Winter Games would be held in Trojena, a location of NEOM “where winter temperatures plummet below zero Celsius and year-round temperatures are normally 10 degrees lower than the rest of the region.”
According to the website, Trojena will be finished in 2026 and include year-round skiing, a man-made freshwater lake, chalets, mansions, and ultra-luxury hotels.
It would “redefine mountain tourism for the globe by developing a destination based on the principles of ecotourism, showcasing our efforts to protect environment and increase the quality of life in the community,” according to Prince Mohammed, the board chair of NEOM.
Trojena, one of NEOM’s ten areas, is intended to be surrounded by a natural reserve, and its developers claim they are attempting to keep this in mind as they go on with the project. Trojena is located approximately 50 kilometers inland from the Gulf of Aqaba and is one of NEOM’s ten regions.
In an interview posted on Trojena’s website, executive director Philip Gullett remarked, “You construct a new road through that habitat and you’ll never fix it.”
“We’re adopting a stance where you recognize the worth of the flora, wildlife, and animals.”
The Vault, a purported vertical town that Gullett said resembled The Line by “minimizing the land take—and optimising walkability—rather than spreading all those pieces out over a huge expanse,” is also included in the plans for Trojena.
According to Gullett, the artificial lake would be around five meters deep and filled with desalinated sea water.
The 60 square kilometer location for Trojena is expected to be between 1 500 and 2 600 meters above sea level.
Alpine skier Fayik Abdi was a member of the Saudi bid team that won the Asian Winter Games, and he said in a statement released by the OCA that as a youngster, “I never dreamed I would ski in my birthplace.”
The Asian Winter Games will include 47 events, including 28 on snow and 19 on ice, in the sports of skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey, and figure skating, according to the OCA.
Saudi Arabia has come under fire for suspected “sportswashing,” which involves staging prestigious boxing, Formula 1, and other competitions to attract attention away from its track record on human rights.
In September, a senior Egyptian official said that Egypt, Greece, and Saudi Arabia were in discussions on hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup together.
The Saudi-backed LIV golf circuit, which has created havoc in the professional golf world since its June inception with record payouts and financial guarantees pulling some top players away from the US PGA Tour, is scheduled to have an event in Jeddah later this month.
The Asian Games, a sizable multisport competition, will be held in 2034 in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The hosting of the Olympics was the kingdom’s “ultimate ambition,” according to Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, minister of sports, in an interview with AFP in August.
He remarked, “I believe Saudi Arabia has shown that we are capable of hosting such events.
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