Future hosts Saudi Arabia ‘watch and learn’ on Asian Winter Games debut

HARBIN: Saudi Arabia made their debut at the Asian Winter Games in China this week and will controversially host the next edition in a move derided as “awful” by one Olympic skier and denounced by environmental groups.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in 2022 unanimously approved the desert kingdom´s bid to stage the Games at its $500 billion megacity NEOM in 2029. “It is awful for our sport,” Olympic downhill silver medallist Johan Clarey previously told French radio.

Saudi Arabia will also host the football World Cup in 2034, part of a splurge on sports events which has triggered accusations of “sportswashing” of its rights record. Saudi officials deny that and were in Harbin this week, with the vice president of the country´s Olympic committee in the Chinese city to “watch and learn”.

“Of course it would be a first for us, organising such an event,” Prince Fahd bin Jalawi bin Abdul Aziz said in an OCA news release. “But I can assure everyone that we will put on a good show.”

Planners for the futuristic but far-from-finished NEOM, which has sought to wrangle support from Chinese investors, say it will feature a year-round winter sports complex in the mountains of Trojena.

NEOM executive Denis Hickey said at Davos last month that Trojena was “deep into construction”, including a man-made lake and “frameworks for the village that will hold the Asian Winter Games”.

Temperatures have yet to dip below zero this year in northern Saudi Arabia´s Tabuk province, which covers NEOM. Saudi officials did not respond to an AFP request in Harbin for comment about how it plans to prepare for the 2029 Games.

There were eight Saudi athletes in China and even though none won a medal, they were having a “great” time at the country´s first Asian Winter Games, they said. Saudi Arabia exited the Games after the men´s curling team failed to advance out of the round robin to the elimination bracket.

They were thrashed 15-1 by Hong Kong on Wednesday. But curler Hussain Hagawi, who picked up the sport in 2017, remained upbeat after his team “almost beat Japan”. They had led Japan by one point after the first end but lost 9-4 on Tuesday. “So far we´re doing great!” he said.

They began preparing for the Harbin Games in November, training on indoor ice in Saudi Arabia, including at ice hockey rinks. “Of course, no rink is compared to the ice in the international arenas,” said Hagawi, 46.

His teammate Suleiman Alaqel said he did some of his training in front of his television, squeezing his workouts into a busy schedule as a full-time data engineer. The team met every other weekend for practice, the 39-year-old said, clarifying: “Sometimes every three weekends.”

“We do have some limitations with having competition-level ice, obviously, but we do train a lot,” Alaqel said. “As long as the team has the passion, we can use anything to prepare.” In number, the Saudis paled in comparison to this year´s hosts, who received the loudest cheers at the opening ceremony as China´s delegation of about 170 athletes were last to enter the stadium in front of a waving President Xi Jinping.

But Saudi Arabia´s Olympic committee vice president has pledged to have a far bigger squad in Trojena. In Harbin, their delegation comprised a five-man curling team and three alpine skiers -- one man and two women.

“We will be trying our best to have athletes in every sport by 2029,” he said. The Saudis plan to add mixed doubles and women´s teams for curling in 2029, Hagawi said. There are also ongoing negotiations for more intensive local training programmes. “In NEOM, well, we will try as much as we can,” added Alaqel. “We will also try to introduce a lot more people to the game.”