Almaty could host 2029 Asian Winter Games

Flag bearer representing Kazakhstan at the 2025 Asian Winter Games closing ceremony in Harbin / Photo: Olympic.kz

Xinhua, a prominent Chinese news agency, reported that on Feb. 5, the Olympic Council of Asia and Kazakhstan will sign an agreement to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Almaty.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia was designated to host the Games; however, the ambitious project to run a winter sports event in the desert was terminated in January. The reason lies in a significant construction delay of the planned modern city of Neom, which was planned to host the Games. In particular, the Trojena ski resort will definitely not be commissioned by 2029.

Almaty has already hosted the Winter Asiad in 2011 jointly with Astana. Then, in 2017, it hosted the 2017 Winter Universiade and fell short of Beijing in the International Olympic Committee vote to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Asian Winter Games are held every four years. In 2025, the competition was hosted by Harbin, China — they were cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic. Previously, the host cities were Sapporo and Obihiro (2017), Astana and Almaty (2011), Changchun (2007), Aomori (2003), Gangwon (1999), Harbin (1996), and Sapporo (1990, 1986).