– I’m a bit over the moon, says Bjørn Olav Utvik to news. He is a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo (UiO) and could read on Tuesday that the desert state of Saudi Arabia has been awarded the Asian Winter Games in 2029. SAUDI ARABIA EXPERT: Professor Bjørn Olav Utvik. Photo: UiO The futuristic winter sports city has been named Trojena, stretches over 65 kilometers and is part of the giant Neom project, which will cost an incredible NOK 5,000 billion. Trojena was the only “host city” that applied for the Games. – This is a great victory for the Saudi nation and the Gulf states, said Prince Abdulaziz, the Saudi Arabian sports minister, when the award was official. – Only one hotel has been built in Trojena and the winter sports facility is therefore only a small part of Neom – an enormous futuristic and hyper-modern city on the coast of the Red Sea. The city will have space for 9 million inhabitants, according to the plans. It is in the mountainous area of Neom that Trojena will be located. – This city has been planned for a good number of years now and has been very successful. A journalist from The Economist went there this year and found that it was mostly desert and only one hotel had been built there. They didn’t even have a name tag. That doesn’t mean they can’t get started. But there is a story in the Gulf that things go so-so with mega-projects that are to be created out of nothing in the desert, says Utvik. Neom is planned to accommodate nine million people and has been named “The Line”. All pictures are floor plans. Two large constructions that are 500 meters high face each other, and will stretch over 170 kilometers. The prince in Saudi Arabia has obtained world-renowned architects and engaged an American PR agency to help develop “The line”. According to the plan, there will be neither cars nor roads in the futuristic city. The project will have a price tag of several hundred billion dollars. All images are plan views. The city and the facility will be located on the inside of two 170 kilometer long parallel rows of skyscrapers. The line will go through both mountains and desert. Although the temperature in Saudi Arabia rarely falls below ten degrees Celsius, it can get cold in the mountains in winter. In neighboring Qatar, which hosts the World Cup in November, huge air conditioning systems have been built in the stadiums to bring the temperature down. Already in 2019, Qatar promised that the Khalifa Stadium would be climate-friendly before the World Championships in Athletics, but that was not the case. – Despite everything, the Asian Winter Games are smaller than the football World Cup, but at the same time a place must be created where, as of today, nothing exists. They get enough to arrange this, even if it is quite challenging that they have to have winter games. They have to create artificial winter. At the same time, they say that this should be climate neutral. I have very little faith in that, says the Saudi Arabia expert. – Sports washing to the nth power It is the Saudi Arabian investment fund that will finance the construction of the city. It is the same fund that recently bought the English football club Newcastle United. “The deserts and mountains in Saudi Arabia will soon become a playground for winter sports,” reads a statement. – This is mountain life for the future, write the organisers. That statement gives Jan Petter Saltvedt, news’s sports commentator, a bad taste in his mouth. SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Jan Petter Saltvedt. Photo: Ksenia Novikova / news – This is completely absurd and perverse. It is so far outside of what sport should be – sport at its most beautiful. There will be something extraterrestrial about the whole thing, says Saltvedt and continues: – As a Norwegian, it makes me sad because this also symbolizes what the Winter Olympics are about to become. The time for winter parties that we Norwegians are so fond of is almost over. What we saw the outlines of in Beijing is not a party, but a demonstration of strength and power on artificial snow. – Why is Saudi Arabia doing this? – It is a show of strength. It’s sports washing to the nth power. It is not just that they enter a sport, they do something that is completely utopian and use the sport to show that “we can do exactly what we want, because we are so strong that they have to take care of us. We have come to stay – they will not get rid of us. Not once in the winter,” replies Saltvedt. news has tried to get a comment from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Oslo, but has so far been unsuccessful. news CORRESPONDENT: Yama Wolasmal thinks Saudi Arabia wants to pick up the tourist battle with Dubai. Photo: news Meiner the crown prince is popular news correspondent Yama Wolasmal is in no way surprised that the desert state is now getting ready to welcome winter sports athletes from all over Asia. He says that the games are part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to open up the country to tourists from all over the world. – They think that “if Dubai manages to attract as many tourists as historic cities like London and Paris, then we will be able to beat Dubai”. Saudi Arabia is so much richer than Dubai. They have set themselves the goal of becoming a “tourist hub”. Seen from the Saudi Arabians’ point of view, these Winter Games fit perfectly with what they are trying to achieve, says Wolasmal. Although the awarding of the Games has caused reactions outside Saudi Arabia, the news correspondent believes that both the plans for the giant Neom project and the Winter Games are not controversial among the Saudi Arabians. – The Crown Prince has surprisingly great support among young Saudi Arabs we speak to. They make up 70 percent of the population. This has been a country that has been hermetically closed to the outside world – it has not been possible to travel there as a tourist. It has been known for a brutal religious police, conservative and strict rules of life – but the crown prince is about to remove all of this. He wants to open up his country and spares no expense in the attempt to modernize one of the world’s most conservative countries, he says. Does not take a position on Saudi Arabia as Olympic organizer Kristin Kloster Aasen is part of the IOC board, which awards the Olympics. She says that they do not lie about what the Asian organizer wants for the Asian Winter Games. Sports authorities in Saudi Arabia have previously stated that an Olympic event is a goal for the oil state, according to NTB. The Winter Games in 2029 can therefore be seen as a step towards an Olympic application. Aasen will not decide whether Saudi Arabia is relevant as an Olympic organizer in the future. – I am preoccupied with what we work with in the IOC, and that is that the Olympics will be as good and as viable as possible, and that it tolerates criticism and a spotlight. I hope what we do spreads to others, she says to news. IOC MEMBER: Kristin Kloster Aasen. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB Ho points out that there must be certain criteria in place for a country to be able to host the Olympics. She says that new criteria have come into place since countries such as Russia and China (twice) were awarded the Olympics. – We have to talk to people who want to talk to us. But our standards, profiles and strategies on human rights, sports, participation, gender balance and women are absolutely decisive for a future organiser, says Aasen. Prerequisites for nature and something like the level of the athletes in the host country are also some criteria, she explains. – What level are Saudi Arabia’s athletes at? – I have no idea. I don’t know if they have skiers. – That says a lot, doesn’t it? – It says that they will get into a situation where they have to discuss what their prerequisites are in order to be a natural organizer of the Winter Olympics.
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