Twig's Trash Talk: Saudi Arabia Freeski Big Air

Image: Arabian Business

In just over a week, there will be a 'landmark' Freeski Big Air event in Saudi Arabia. It hasn't exactly been all over the ski-dar but invitations have quietly been sent out to all the big names with the details of the event, which covers all expenses for athletes, pays a $2000 appearance fee, and a huge prize purse by the standards of modern-day freeskiing. Here are the details:

Dates: 02/27/2024 - 02/28/2024

All participants: $2,000

Sounds great, get some skiers paid, no harm, no foul right? Erm fuck no. Sure you can't celebrate your win with anything more exciting than fizzy apple juice, and if you try and smoke one before the comp, you'll probably end up discovering the far less desirable way of 'getting stoned' but that's barely the surface of the issues here. If you promote or attend this event, you are essentially complicit in supporting a regime that still has a death penalty for homosexuality, drug use, etc.

To start with a headline: NO WOMEN ARE INVITED, this is a male-only event. Women in Saudi Arabia have essentially no significant rights, they are treated akin to permanent minors (except they can be married off when they still are actual minors). The Saudi regime would certainly like to keep it that way so there can be no kind of public event that would suggest the competency of women or, dread to think, equality of genders. Women's events have been keeping comps interesting for a while now too so it won't be a great show. So unless for some reason you're enough of a douchebag to believe that the Fagan twins are all good by virtue of gender, while Mathilde Gremaud should only be allowed to cook your lunch, that alone is reason enough to steer clear of this one.

The event is, of course, an environmental disaster, paid for by an environmental disaster of a nation. Saudi Arabia is the worst per capita polluter on the planet (disclaimer: for a country with a population over 5 million). Sure, you could argue we're buying their oil to run our sleds, and you'd be right. But it sure as shit isn't a reason to fly a ton of people there to compete in a greenwashing, regime-justifying showcase of 'snowsports' in the middle of a desert.

Then there are the other 'being a decent human' issues. As mentioned, homosexuality comes with a death sentence, which makes being a woman look pretty cushy. The country plays a major role in the funding of conflicts across the Middle East and Africa (Syria, Yemen etc... not that many other countries have a leg to stand on here). Of course, skiing is not going to change anything in and of itself by ignoring this event. But if you watch, if you're one of the athletes going or one of the organizers, you are, in a small way, part of the problem.

The Saudi government is engaging in a HUGE effort to change the international perception of the country through sports and to avoid reforming at any cost. From football (soccer for those of you who have issues with anatomy) to golf and boxing, it is essentially pushing the country into the worldwide consciousness through sports, to cover up our accurate perception that it's an oil-burning, queer-stoning, warmongering human rights disaster. Those who take the money, who compete, who organize, who travel as press, ARE part of the problem. It's they who make what the Saudi government is doing possible. I'm not claiming to be particularly virtuous, and NS sure as shit isn't a role model. But if you're part of this, sorry, but your either a moron or you just don't care, at all. And that's not a good look for your sponsors, employers, or whoever...