Saudi Arabia has been designated to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Neom, a future futuristic megacity under construction in the northwest of the desert kingdom, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on Tuesday (October 4th). .
BREAKING NEWS
The deserts & mountains of #SaudiArabia will soon be a playground for Winter sports!#NEOMTrojena city has been unanimously chosen to host the 2029 #AsianWinterGames by delegates at the #41stGeneralAssembly. #Announcement @saudiolympic @NEOMTROJENA pic.twitter.com/sH154g2LUI
—Olympic Council of Asia (@AsianGamesOCA) October 4, 2022
“The deserts and mountains of Saudi Arabia will soon be a playground for winter sports”, said this organization in a press release reporting the decision taken during its general assembly in Phnom Penh. In Beijing, during the Winter Olympics, for the first time in its history, the country sent a delegation of two athletes in alpine skiing. The Asian Winter Games include competitions in skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey and figure skating, totaling 47 events, including 28 on snow and 19 on ice, according to the OCA. They are disputed by more than 32 countries.
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Neom director Nadhmi al-Nasr claimed he would be given “adequate infrastructure to create a winter atmosphere in the heart of the desert, and to make these Winter Games an unprecedented global event”. Located on the shores of the Red Sea, the Neom project, worth several hundred billion dollars and carried by the powerful Crown Prince Mohamed ben Salman, should take place precisely in Trojena, a mountainous sector of Neom “where temperatures drop below zero degrees in winter and temperatures throughout the year are generally 10 degrees lower”say the promoters on their website, without mentioning the question of precipitation.
After having attracted the Dakar, Formula 1, boxing, Formula E, golf with the LIV circuit which it finances, the kingdom is focusing on winter sports. And he does not intend to stop there, as Sports Minister Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal told AFP last August: “Without a doubt, the Olympics would be an ultimate goal for us.” The country has also applied to host the Asian Football Cup in 2027 and the women’s version in 2026.
Saudi Arabia has a desert climate, where maximum temperatures exceed 40° for several consecutive months of the year, and its regime is regularly criticized for its human rights violations.