Ambitious Saudis look to home-grown talent for future success

RIYADH – Saudi Arabia will look to home-grown talent to expand its base of elite athletes, rather than follow its neighbours down the path of naturalising foreigners, the media chief of Saudi’s Olympic committee said.

Funding from the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which manages more than US$700 billion (S$944.5 billion) in assets, has rocketed the country to major-player status in the world of sport over just a few years.

But developing talent is a longer-term project not easily accelerated by financial muscle, and Saudi Arabia will need more than the 33 athletes it sent to the Tokyo Olympics if it wants to host the Summer Games.

Qatar trod a similar investment-led path of development, culminating in the hosting of the 2022 football World Cup, but with citizens making up only around 11 per cent of its tiny population, it had to be creative about producing sporting talent.

The result was a policy in which athletes from around the world were offered cash and limited citizenship to compete for Qatar and supplement local talent.

Five of the seven athletes who have won Olympic medals for Qatar were born outside the state, and other Gulf nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have followed suit in the pursuit of sporting success.

“Naturalisation is an issue that is ultimately subject to circumstances,” said Abdulaziz Albaqous, director of corporate communications and international relations at the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“We prefer to invest in the future, in the generation that already exists to produce champions through a successful sports system.”

Saudi Arabia’s population of some 37 million dwarfs those of its neighbours, and Albaqous is convinced that there will be plenty of talent unearthed by various initiatives, some already under way.

He pointed to the success of a schools league for seven sports and the annual Saudi Games, which launched in 2022 and had more than 8,000 participants in the 2023 edition.

“The kingdom has a vast geographical area, cultural diversity, and a sufficient and increasing population. You are working with future generations,” Albaqous added.

“Of course, there is more than one initiative to enhance participation and have more athletes and players.

“There is support to local sports federations to increase the number of registered players, support to clubs to give them financial incentives to open the way to different sports, to increase players and number of people taking part in sport.”

Albaqous also said participation in sport in Saudi Arabia had already increased dramatically during the last decade. “The percentage of people practising sports in the country has increased from 13 per cent in 2015 to more than 48 per cent in 2022,” he said.

Female athletes were for many years an untapped reservoir of talent in the conservative Islamic state, with girls banned from participating in sport at public schools until 2017 and women not allowed into sports stadiums until 2018.

The policies were reversed under the influence of Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In 2024, taekwondo exponent Donia Abu Taleb became the first Saudi woman to qualify for the Olympics, rather than be granted a spot through regional or IOC quotas. REUTERS