Saudi Gazette report

BEIJING — Saudi Arabia's lone participant in the Winter Olympics, Alpine skier Fayik Abdi, finished 44th in the giant slalom event in Beijing on Sunday.

The 24-year-old made history by becoming the first Saudi and Gulf national to ski at the Winter Olympics Games.

Abdi, who was making his Winter Olympics debut, ended at 51st in race 1 with a time of 1:21.44 out of the 54 competitors who finish the run. About 33 skiers failed to finish race 1 while two did not start.

Abdi improved his performance in race 2 by clocking 1:25.41, ending 44th out of 46 skiers, who complete the run. Nine skiers failed to finish race 2, which was delayed by nearly four hours due to bad weather.

Prince Fahd Bin Jalawi Bin Abdulaziz Bin Musaed, vice president of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee was at hand at the National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing District, cheering Abdi on.

Abdi is the first skier from Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom’s first Winter Olympian. The Saudi Winter Sports Federation undertook a global campaign to find Saudi winter sports athletes to support its first winter team.

He had been filming a commercial video for a new ski resort in Saudi Arabia when the Federation reached out to him in March 2021 to speak to him about the Olympics.