Saudi Arabia postpones 2029 Asian Winter Games at NEOM

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have agreed to postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games, originally scheduled to be held at the NEOM mountain resort, the kingdom’s ambitious mega‑project, a joint statement said on Saturday.

No new dates have been announced, and neither body provided a reason for the delay.

The postponement is a setback for Saudi Arabia, which has lined up several major international events over the next decade. The Winter Games, along with the 2034 FIFA World Cup and the 2030–2031 Riyadh Expo, were seen as benchmarks for advancing mega‑projects central to the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy away from oil.

NEOM, which is projected to host 9 million residents, and other key projects in the kingdom have faced repeated delays.

A source at the Saudi Olympic Committee told Reuters that Riyadh will negotiate a new date for the games at NEOM. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the postponement would also give the kingdom time to develop a culture of winter sports.

The announcement comes as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and government authorities review major development projects amid rising costs.

Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al‑Jadaan had said last year that the kingdom had “no ego” when reassessing the feasibility of some initiatives, shifting focus to sectors promising quicker returns, including tourism, religious pilgrimages, industry, and artificial intelligence.

The Winter Games were to be held at Trojena, a centrepiece of NEOM designed to offer year‑round skiing and outdoor sports in the mountains of northwest Saudi Arabia — a region with no natural snow.

The project has faced persistent questions over its timeline, and in August 2025, the OCA reportedly approached South Korea to explore the possibility of stepping in as host.