Saudi Arabia postpones 2029 Asian Winter Games in Trojena

• Uncertainty over readiness of venue
• Mountain resort is part of Neom
• New date yet to be announced

Saudi Arabia has postponed its plans to stage the 2029 Asian Winter Games, with the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia confirming that the event will be pushed back under a “new hosting framework”.

The announcement ends months of uncertainty after reports that Trojena, the planned 1,400 square kilometre mountain resort, would not be ready in time.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the two organisations said they have agreed “an updated framework for future hosting of the Asian Winter Games”, with a new date yet to be announced.

“Under the revised framework, Saudi Arabia will host a series of standalone winter sports events in the coming years,” Saturday’s statement read. The postponement will allow “additional preparation time to support wider regional representation at future Asian winter events.”

In August last year, unnamed sources told Reuters that South Korea was a possible host for the 2029 games if Saudi Arabia was not ready in time.

“Economically I don’t see this as an issue,” Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and a former IMF official, told AGBI.

“I presume it is part of the overall reassessment of projects in the current lower oil price environment. I think this is a good thing and a sign of maturity in policy making. Better to postpone now rather than in a few years’ time.”

AGBI has contacted The Olympic Council of Asia and Neom for comment. 

People with knowledge of the construction of Trojena said that the resort, which is part of the larger Neom giga-project, was far from completion and unlikely to be ready before 2029. 

“There is absolutely no way they can be ready in time,” a person who has worked on the site said. 

The source said a hotel project scheduled to begin more than a year ago has not been started. They said that Trojena still lacks the adequate infrastructure to bring material to the site.

“Nothing can reach there, so how are you going to build anything?” the source said.

First ski resort in the Gulf

Launched in 2022 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trojena was pitched as a year-round alpine destination within Neom, sitting at elevations of up to 2,600 metres. It would be the first outdoor ski resort in the GCC.

Reliant on a vast “all-weather” snow system that uses desalinated sea water pumped in from more than 200km away, the project plans to boast 30km of ski slopes.

“Most of the snow in Trojena will be machine-made,” said Richard Scott, Trojena’s senior project manager in a company video posted in March last year. But some close to the project have questioned how long the snow can last without melting.

Saudi Arabia was awarded hosting rights for the 2029 Games in late 2022. Progress has since been closely scrutinised amid slowing construction, sustainability concerns and a shifting fiscal outlook across the kingdom. 

A 2023 review found that costs for Trojena had increased by more than $10 billion, according to an internal presentation reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

“The reason a final decision [to postpone the games] hasn’t been announced sooner is that no one has been willing to tell senior officials that it can’t be done in time,” a source familiar with internal discussions told AGBI.

Giles Pendleton, the chief operating officer of Neom and regional head of Trojena, has previously given reason to think that Saudi Arabia would not host the games in 2029.

Further reading:

• Saudi Arabia bids to host Asian Winter Games in Neom
• Saudi Arabia’s Trojena backed by Olympic Council
• Giga-project tracker

As rumours swirled of the Asian Winter Games being pushed back to a later date, Pendleton wrote on his publicly available CV that the Trojena project would be “a destination for the 2033 Asian Winter Games”.

Rachel Ziemba, founder of country-risk consultancy Ziemba Insights said: “Indeed it was one of many bold initiatives and the delay may reflect project rationalisation. 

“Tourism and gaming remain a high priority in Vision 2030 but this is a year of more rationalisation and picking which projects are most important.”