Saudi Arabia’s flag will be raised tomorrow as the only GCC member participating in 2022 Beijing Olympics

RIYADH: In a huge milestone for Saudi Arabia the country’s flag will be raised high on Friday at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the only Gulf nation to compete at the winter games.

“We are very happy and proud to be able to participate. We are the only GCC country that has ever qualified for the Winter Olympics,” said Rabab Mahassen, vice president of the Saudi Winter Sport Federation, which was launched in 2021 with the backing of the Ministry of Sports. “Saudi Arabia’s flag will be marching at the opening of the Beijing Olympics tomorrow, and that in itself is a huge win for the Kingdom.”

“We selected the most promising and skilled athletes and then created the perfect program for them,” Mahassen told Arab News.

Last October, Fayik Abdi managed to score the most points during the Federation Internationale Switzerland qualifiers in Geneva and was selected by the SWSF as the athlete to advance to the games.

Abdi will be the only Saudi Winter Olympian to go and will be competing in the alpine skiing Giant Slalom category. The Saudi skier arrived in the Chinese capital on Thursday in preparation for his historic participation on Feb. 13.

Two other Saudis — skiers Salman Al-Howaish and Rakan Alireza — earned enough qualifying points to be eligible to compete in Beijing but Saudi Arabia was only allocated one place at the games.

In May 2021, the SWSF launched a nationwide campaign seeking serious Saudi skiers and snowboarders who could represent their nation at the games and were deluged with responses, according to Mahassen.

Impressed with the level of proficiency Saudis possessed in different alpine disciplines, the federation narrowed their search by focusing on those who had already been