Reporting from Main Press Center in Milan, Italy – Almaty in Kazakhstan will host the 10th Asian Winter Games in 2029, awarded the massive event after Saudi Arabia and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) agreed to push The Kingdom’s hosting of the event forward due to significant delays. Plans were for the Games to be staged at the yet-to-be-built Trojena ski resort in the new NEOM City
The OCA announced a postponement of the Saudi Arabia plans last month but on Monday revealed that they had chosen Almaty as a replacement and Thursday held the signing ceremony of the Host City Contract in Milan ahead of the opening of the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.
Saudi Arabia was awarded the event in 2022 when it promised to build a new ski resort in the desert, baffling critics who questioned the feasibility and sustainability of the grandiose project. It is part of the massive NEOM city building project that has experienced huge cost overruns and long delays.
According to AFP, organizers have been considering staging the subsequent edition of the event in Trojena in 2033. South Korea and China – both hosts of recent Olympic Winter Games in 2018 and 2022 respectively – were reportedly approached to step in for 2029 before Almaty was chosen.
Almaty was close to hosting the 2022 Olympic Winter Games when the Kazakh city was defeated by Beijing after a close 44-40 International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote. The election was controversial after an initial ballot was invalidated for undisclosed technical reasons and the digital voting tablets were replaced with paper ballots for a second vote. Some anonymous inside sources have since suggested the initial vote resulted in a tie.
Kazakhstan previously hosted the 7th Asian Winter Games in Astana and Almaty in 2011.
The Asian Winter Games is an important continental event that serves as a foundation for nations to develop athletes and prepare for participation at the Olympic Winter Games. The last Games were staged in Harbin, China in 2025 – there was no event in 2021.
