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Fayik Abdi, Saudi Arabia’s first Alpine skier, concluded his historic participation in the giant slalom race at the 2022 Beijing Olympics on February 13th afternoon.
The 24-year-old, the Kingdom’s lone representative in China, ended 45th with a total time of 2:46:85 after Run 2, with Marco Odermatt of Switzerland taking the victory, Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec came in second, and France’s Mathieu Faivre secured the bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, Abdi ran a time of 1:21:44 in Run 1 to rank 51st out of 91 contestants in the first ever Saudi participation at the Winter Games, helping to shape a new future for winter sports in the Kingdom.
Abdi is the first Saudi and Gulf athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics since the games’ commencement in 1924. He qualified for the Games in December after averaging 131.03 points in his five best-scoring races, a record time.
