The indefinite postponement of the 2029 Asian Winter Games is more than a scheduling adjustment. It is the first major structural reset in Saudi Arabia’s sporting superpower project, and it reveals how even the most lavishly funded visions can collide with engineering, economics and climate science.
The decision, formally announced by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee on January 24, 2026, shifts the Games away from a fixed deadline and into what has been called an “Updated Framework” of phased, standalone winter events.
The Games were originally supposed to be hosted in Trojena, a mountain resort carved out of the desert as part of the $500-billion NEOM megacity. Saudi Arabia’s bid in 2022 was audacious, promising alpine skiing, artificial lakes and snowmaking systems in a region that had never hosted winter sport at scale. The award was unanimous because Saudi Arabia was the only bidder. At the time, it was framed as a triumph of technology over geography. Four years later, that optimism has been replaced by a more sobering assessment of what it actually takes to create winter in the desert.
Why Trojena Was Not Ready
The heart of the problem is water. Trojena’s entire winter ecosystem depends on a massive artificial freshwater lake, which in turn depends on desalinated seawater being pumped more than 2,000 metres uphill. Engineers estimate that filling this lake alone requires roughly 2.7 million cubic metres of water enough to run a one-metre-wide pipe at full capacity for two continuous years. As of January 2026, the desalination plant at Sharma, which is meant to supply that water, has not even begun construction.
The dam system being built by Italian firm Webuild has made progress, including surpassing one million cubic metres of roller-compacted concrete in late 2025, but that still represents only about 25 percent of the main dam’s total requirement. Tunnels for signature structures such as “The Vault”, a vertical ski village, have also faced geological surprises that slowed excavation. In short, Trojena’s physical backbone simply cannot be finished in time for a 2029 multi-sport event.
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Instead of cancelling outright, Saudi Arabia and the OCA have opted for an “Updated Framework” that replaces one massive deadline with a sequence of standalone winter sport events. This approach allows individual venues to be tested as they come online, reduces the reputational risk of hosting a half-built mega-event, and gives Saudi Arabia time to develop athletes, officials and technicians in sports that are almost non-existent domestically.
Politically, this matters. Saudi Arabia still wants to be seen as the future of global sport, but it no longer wants to gamble that reputation on a single, all-or-nothing date.
Behind the engineering delays lies a deeper economic recalibration. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme is funded largely by oil revenue and managed through the Public Investment Fund (PIF). But oil prices in late 2025 were hovering around $60 per barrel, well below the roughly $96 Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget. At the same time, PIF profits collapsed by 60 percent in 2024, and the fund had to write down about $8 billion in the value of megaprojects because of cost overruns and delays.
The 2026 national budget reflects this shift. Total spending has been cut, the deficit target has been tightened, and NEOM once the crown jewel of Vision 2030 was notably absent from the government’s forward-looking budget narrative. Saudi finance officials have even spoken openly about having “no ego” when it comes to reassessing feasibility. That is a remarkable change for a project that once sold itself as unstoppable.
The OCA Was Already Looking Elsewhere
The postponement also confirms that the OCA had been quietly exploring contingency plans. South Korea, particularly Gangwon Province, has hosted everything from the Winter Olympics to the Asian Winter Games and Winter Youth Olympics. China, fresh off Harbin 2025, also has ready-made infrastructure. These were not theoretical backups; they were practical safety nets in case Trojena slipped. The January 2026 decision makes it clear that those conversations were justified.
Even if Trojena is eventually completed, climate models raise uncomfortable questions about its long-term viability. Research cited in the report shows that by 2050, even at Trojena’s highest elevations, the number of days suitable for skiing with artificial snow will drop sharply. At lower altitudes, skiable days are projected to fall to zero. That means Saudi Arabia is building infrastructure whose natural operating window is shrinking, even with advanced technology.
The energy required to desalinate seawater, pump it uphill and convert it into snow is enormous. While NEOM promises to run on renewable energy, the carbon and resource cost of constructing such a megacity remains controversial.
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The postponement of the Asian Winter Games is not an isolated incident. It is a warning signal for the Kingdom’s entire sports portfolio, including the 2034 FIFA World Cup and the futuristic NEOM Stadium planned high above “The Line” megacity. By late 2025, Saudi authorities were already asking contractors to cut World Cup costs by 20 percent, and there is widespread belief that the original stadium plans will be scaled back.
Saudi Arabia is not abandoning its sporting ambitions. It is, however, learning that ambition must now negotiate with physics, finance and climate. The Trojena delay shows that even in a country with vast resources, there are limits to how fast you can bend nature to your will.
For global sport, the message is equally clear. Mega-events built on spectacle and scale must also pass the test of sustainability and feasibility. The desert can host winter sport but only if the numbers, the science and the timelines add up.
