RIYADH — Saudi Arabia was chosen Tuesday to host the
2029 Asian Winter Games at an under-construction $500 billion futuristic desert
megacity that planners say will feature a year-round winter sports complex.
اضافة اعلان
“The deserts and
mountains of Saudi Arabia will soon be a playground for winter sports,” the
Olympic Council of Asia said in a statement on the decision made during its
general assembly meeting in Phnom Penh.
The Saudi bid was
“unanimously approved”, the statement said, noting that the megacity known as
NEOM will be the first West Asian city to host the event.
First announced in
2017, NEOM has consistently raised eyebrows for proposed flourishes like flying
taxis and robot maids, even as architects and economists have questioned its
feasibility.
In July, Crown
Prince
Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans for a project within NEOM known as
The Line, two parallel mirror-encased skyscrapers extending over 170km of
mountain and desert terrain.
The Asian Winter
Games are slated to take place in Trojena, an area of NEOM “where winter
temperatures drop below 0°C, and year-round temperatures are generally 10
degrees cooler than the rest of the region”, according to the project’s
website.
Set to be completed
in 2026, Trojena will include year-round skiing, a manmade freshwater lake,
chalets, mansions, and ultra-luxury hotels, the website says.
One of 10 regions within NEOM, it is situated about
50km inland from the Gulf of Aqaba in an area that, like much of the rest of
the kingdom, receives very little rainfall.
Prince Mohammed,
chair of NEOM’s board, has said it “will redefine mountain tourism for the
world by creating a place based on the principles of ecotourism, highlighting
our efforts to preserve nature and enhance the community’s quality of life”.
Trojena is meant to
be surrounded by a nature reserve, something developers say they are trying to
be mindful of as they proceed with the project. “You cut a new road through
that environment and you’ll never repair it,” Philip Gullett, Trojena’s
executive director, said in an interview on its website. “We are taking an
approach whereby you realize the value that there is in the flora, fauna and
animals.”
Plans for Trojena
also include The Vault, a so-called vertical village that Gullett said
resembles The Line, by “minimizing the land take — and maximizing walkability —
rather than spreading all those elements out across a large space.”
The Asian Winter
Games include competitions for skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey, and figure
skating — 47 events in all, 28 on snow and 19 on ice, the OCA said.
Saudi Arabia has
drawn criticism for alleged “sports washing” — hosting high-profile boxing,
Formula 1 and other contests to divert attention from its human rights record.
An Egyptian
official said in September that Egypt, Greece, and Saudi Arabia were in talks
on a proposal to jointly host the 2030 World Cup football tournament.
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