Saudi Games

The Saudi Games, one of the initiatives of the Quality of Life Program, which is one of the Saudi Vision 2030 Realization Programs, is overseen by the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The first edition of the games, hosted by Riyadh City in the fourth quarter of 2022, featured approximately forty-five sports in which participants competed for prizes.

The history of the Saudi Games dates back to February 26, 2020, when the Ministry of Sport and the Saudi Olympic Committee launched the first edition of the Saudi Games as part of the Quality of Life Program, overseen by the Saudi Olympic Committee. The games were originally scheduled to take place from March 23 to April 1, 2020, in the capital, Riyadh. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were postponed until the end of March 2020.

Before the first edition commenced, the Saudi Games Torch visited all thirteen provinces of the Kingdom, as well as numerous entities, facilities, and locations, totaling around eighty- three sites. The torch covered more than 3,500 km over a period of fifty days to introduce the games, their objectives, and their messages, as well as to attract participants from all parts of the Kingdom.

The organizing supreme committee of the first Saudi Games edition announced on February 6, 2022, the dates for the new edition to be held from March 10 to March 20, 2022, in Riyadh city. They also approved the sports events, registration schedules, and qualification trials for the competitions of the games.

On March 6, 2022, the organizing supreme committee of the Saudi Games approved the postponement of the event to the fourth quarter of 2022, to allow more athletes the opportunity to participate and to hold qualification trials over a longer period of time.

Road race (bicycle) within the Saudi Games. (Saudipedia)

After evaluating sports across the thirteen provinces of the Kingdom based on technical aspects, the popularity of the game, sports standards, and the regulations of the International Olympic Committee and international federations, it was decided to adopt forty-five sports in the first edition of the games. These include handball, futsal, judo, wrestling, taekwondo, karate, jiu-jitsu, squash, gymnastics, archery, Thai boxing, boxing, bowling, swimming, indoor rowing, table tennis, badminton, triathlon, volleyball, and basketball.

Also approved are athletics, weightlifting, fencing, skateboarding, paddle, bridge, chess, camel and equestrian sports (endurance and show jumping), three-by-three basketball, beach volleyball, sport climbing, cycling, golf, along with PUBG Mobile, billiards, tennis, karting, sailing, shooting, goalball, paralympic table tennis, paralympic weightlifting, wheelchair basketball, and para-athletics.

The first Saudi Games edition included registered players from Saudi sports federations and clubs, gathering over six thousand athletes, coaches, and administrators from thirteen provinces of the Kingdom. Each gold medalist received SAR1 million, each silver medalist received SAR300,000, and the bronze medalist received a prize of SAR100,000.

The mascot of the first edition of the Saudi Games symbolizes the Arabian leopard, aiming to raise awareness about preserving it from extinction and to introduce the goals of the Arabian Leopard Fund, as part of the Kingdom's efforts to protect Arabian leopards after they were listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an endangered species. The mascot bears in its center the emblem of the games, composed of the colors of the Olympic rings and the Arabian leopard.

The second edition of the Saudi Games was held from November 26 to December 10, 2023, in the capital, Riyadh. More than eight thousand male and female athletes representing over two hundred clubs from across the Kingdom participated in the competitions. They also competed in fifty-three sports, including six paralympic sports and four new exhibition sports. All of this alongside the introduction of a new youth category comprising twelve sports.

Riyadh hosted the third edition of the Saudi Games in 2024, which took place from October 3 - 17, 2024. The event saw the participation of 200 clubs competing in 45 individual and team sports, including five sports dedicated to Paralympic athletes.