Although the Saudis rarely get more than a touch of snow even in the mountains, they want to host the Asian Winter Games in the futuristic megacity of Neom. But realism has never been a criterion when planning the metropolis.
Saudi athletes at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Japan in July 2020.
Anyone who thinks of dromedaries, date palms and sand dunes when they think of Saudi Arabia instead of ice rinks, ski slopes and cross-country ski trails may have a somewhat clichéd idea of the country. But he is not wrong about that. The country has a typical desert climate, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees in summer and annual rainfall of little more than 11 liters per square meter. In winter, the mercury can fall to freezing point. Even in the mountains of the northwest, there is rarely more than a touch of snow.
However, this has not stopped the kingdom from taking care of the to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games. “We are very excited to welcome all winter sports fans in 2029,” said the President of the Saudi Olympic Committee, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, when announcing the bid last week. The competitions are to take place in the Trojena ski resort in the mountains near the futuristic megacity of Neom.
The disciplines at the Asian Winter Games, which have been held every four years since 1986, include alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon and ice hockey. Venues so far have included Sapporo in Japan, Gangwon in South Korea and Almaty in Kazakhstan – all mountainous regions that have the advantage of having a cold, snowy climate. The same cannot be said of Tabuk province in north-western Saudi Arabia, where Neom is located.
Saudi Arabia’s only ski slope is indoors
So far, Saudi Arabia is not exactly known as a winter sports nation. After all, in February Fayik Abdi was the first athlete to compete in the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The country also has a ski slope – it is ten meters high and is located in a hall in the capital Riyadh. Outdoor skiing won’t work without lots of artificial snow. Not even in Trojena. So far, the ski resort has only existed as a vision in a futuristic commercial – like almost everything in the megacity Neom.
Since the plans for the eco-city were first presented by the young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman five years ago, ever larger and even more fantastic visions have been developed. Flying taxis, glowing beaches and skyscrapers in the shape of flowers and falcons are among them. Most recently, the heir to the throne surprised the world with the idea of «The Line»a city of millions in the form of two 170-kilometer-long, reflective high-rise buildings in the desert.
So far, however, practically nothing has been implemented. Satellite images in Neom only show a few luxurious palace complexes belonging to the crown prince and a residential complex for employees in the form of a Roman army camp. As an Economist correspondent recently traveled to the regionTo get an idea of the construction progress, he found little more than an «I ❤ Neom» sculpture, the rubble of previous houses and much untouched desert.
Ideas like something out of a science fiction film
Noisy Research by the Bloomberg news agency Hardly any of the architects and urban planners involved last long. Attracted by the lavish salaries, most threw in the towel after a few months, frustrated by the ever-changing, unrealistic demands and horrified that vast amounts of money were being spent developing plans that ended up in the trash, Bloomberg writes.
As with most urban development projects in the Middle East, the model and benchmark of all things is the glittering metropolis of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There they actually succeeded in turning a dusty pearl fishing village into a global trading and financial center within just a few decades. However, there are many more examples of planned cities in the region that have never been filled with life.
Much of Neom is so fantastic that it is technically impossible to implement. It is planned that “The Line” will be developed by an underground rapid transit system. According to the plans, she should cover the 170 kilometers in 20 minutes. To do this, she would have to drive more than 500 kilometers per hour. This is technically possible, but there would be no time for a stopover – not ideal for a train that is intended to allow residents to move around the city.
The idea of extending a metropolis of millions as long as possible instead of building it as compactly as possible is difficult to reconcile with the goal of an environmentally friendly city in which the residents can largely get around on foot. The fact that such ideas are presented to the public without contradiction is probably also due to the fact that none of the planners dares to say no to the authoritarian crown prince. And that’s probably the explanation for the fact that an arid desert state without a real ski slope is applying to host the Winter Games.