Saudi Arabia Postpones 2029 Asian Winter Games at NEOM’s Trojena Resort

Winter Games put on hold

Saudi Arabia’s plan to stage a winter sports spectacle in the desert has been put on hold indefinitely.

The Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have agreed to postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games, which were due to be held at Trojena, a yet-to-be-completed ski and mountain resort in the futuristic NEOM mega-project in the kingdom’s northwest. The decision was announced over the weekend in a joint statement and reported by international news agencies on Jan. 25.

Officials did not set a new date or name an alternative host, saying only that the event would be held “at a later date to be announced in due course.” The open-ended language leaves the 10th Asian Winter Games without a clear home three years after Saudi Arabia secured the rights in a unanimous vote.

A shift to standalone events

In their statement, the Saudi committee and the OCA said they had agreed to “an updated framework for future hosting of the Asian Winter Games, confirming the postponement of the 2029 edition to a later date.” Under the revised plan, Saudi Arabia will instead stage “a series of standalone winter sports events in the coming years” designed to promote winter sports and give countries in West Asia more time to develop athletes and infrastructure.

While the statement framed the move as a long-term development strategy, it did not cite specific causes such as construction delays, cost overruns or climate concerns. The decision comes amid mounting questions over whether Trojena and NEOM can be delivered on the original timetable and whether a large winter multisport event is viable in an arid region relying heavily on artificial snow.

How Trojena won the bid

The 2029 Asian Winter Games were awarded to Saudi Arabia in October 2022 at the OCA’s general assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The vote made Trojena the first host from West Asia and the Arab world for a major winter multi-sport event, breaking a pattern of editions held in Japan, China, South Korea and Kazakhstan.

At the time, Saudi Sports Minister and Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee president Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal hailed the decision as “a great victory for the Saudi nation and the people of the Gulf countries.” He said hosting the games would “significantly contribute to the progress of sport and all other fields in the Kingdom for the purpose of delivering the objectives of the Saudi 2030 vision.”

What Trojena and NEOM are

Trojena, set in the Sarawat mountain range near the Red Sea coast, has been marketed as NEOM’s “year-round mountain destination” and the Gulf’s first outdoor ski resort. Plans published by the developers describe a “vertical ski village” carved into the mountains, more than 30 kilometers of ski runs, and a deep artificial lake fed by desalinated water. NEOM officials have said the resort would combine natural and machine-made snow, with synthetic surfaces allowing skiing outside the cooler months.

NEOM itself is a vast planned economic zone and city complex announced in 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a centerpiece of his Vision 2030 economic diversification program. The project includes the proposed linear city known as The Line, the Oxagon industrial hub and luxury island developments. Its overall price tag has been estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, largely financed by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Mounting questions over cost and timelines

In recent years, however, detailed reporting has pointed to engineering challenges and delays across parts of NEOM, including Trojena. Work on the resort’s artificial lake and key water and energy infrastructure has been described as behind schedule, and some of its most complex structures, such as a vast canyon-like development known as The Vault, have been reported to face design and logistical hurdles.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is shouldering an expanding list of high-cost commitments. Riyadh is preparing to host the World Expo in 2030 and the Asian Games in 2034, while the country has been confirmed as host of the 2034 men’s FIFA World Cup. Those tournaments will require new stadiums, housing and transport links on top of the kingdom’s existing “giga-projects.”

Analysts say the sheer volume of parallel projects has increased pressure to prioritize where and how quickly money is spent. The postponement of the Asian Winter Games, while not explained in those terms by Saudi officials, is emerging as one of the first visible adjustments to the original Vision 2030 timetable.

Climate and human rights scrutiny

The location and nature of the Trojena games had also drawn sustained scrutiny from environmental groups and winter sports experts. The planned resort sits in a dry, mountainous area that receives limited natural snowfall, even at higher elevations. To guarantee reliable skiing conditions, developers have said they would rely heavily on artificial snow produced from desalinated water and powered by renewable energy.

Critics have questioned the environmental footprint of that model, pointing to the energy intensity of desalination and snowmaking in a warming climate. NEOM has been described by some climate analysts as a showcase for technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture that, they argue, risk prolonging dependence on fossil fuels rather than reducing it. Saudi officials say the project will operate on 100% renewable energy and will serve as a model for sustainable living.

Human rights advocates have raised separate concerns about how NEOM is being built. Members of the Huwaitat tribe, who lived in the area designated for the project, have alleged forced evictions and harsh reprisals for resisting relocation. In 2020, tribal member Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti was killed by Saudi security forces during a raid on his home after he publicly opposed displacement, according to rights groups. In 2023, U.N. human rights experts said they were “alarmed” by death sentences reportedly handed down to three Huwaitat men convicted on terrorism charges after protesting evictions linked to NEOM.

Those concerns have led non-governmental organizations to warn that international federations and companies risk complicity if they partner on events and projects in the zone without robust human rights safeguards. Saudi officials say the kingdom is reforming and that large projects will bring jobs and opportunities.

What comes next for the OCA

For the OCA, the postponement raises questions about its decision-making when it awarded the winter games to a country with no existing winter sports infrastructure. The OCA had portrayed the 2029 edition as a way to expand the reach of winter sports and tap new commercial markets. In recent months, however, officials and observers in the region have discussed more traditional winter hosts such as South Korea and China as potential backups if Trojena could not be ready on time.

The OCA has not said whether it plans to reassign the 2029 games, merge them with a later edition or wait until Saudi Arabia sets a new date. The next Asian Winter Games are scheduled to take place in 2025 in Harbin, in northeastern China. A 2033 host has not yet been named.

A broader test for global sport

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, continues to use sport as a central pillar of its international strategy. Alongside its football, motor racing, golf and boxing investments, the kingdom had pursued a high-profile partnership with the International Olympic Committee to stage the first Olympic Esports Games in Riyadh. That 12-year agreement was terminated by the IOC after one year in 2025, with the IOC saying the two sides would develop separate approaches to esports.

The fate of the NEOM winter games may become a reference point as global sports bodies weigh lucrative offers from hosts facing environmental or human rights concerns. As winters grow warmer and snowlines retreat, federations are under increasing pressure from athletes and campaigners to consider climate suitability and human rights records alongside funding and facilities.

For now, Saudi Arabia’s ambition to welcome thousands of athletes to ski slopes carved into its mountains remains a promise without a date. The kingdom says it still intends to build Trojena and to foster a winter sports culture at home. Whether the Asian Winter Games eventually return to that plan, or move somewhere colder and more familiar, will test how far sport can stretch geography, engineering and politics in a rapidly warming world.