Who’s Who: Fayik Abdi, Saudi skier

Fayik Abdi. (Supplied)

Fayik Abdi has become the first Saudi to qualify for the alpine skiing Giant Slalom category at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which will take place from Feb. 4 to 20.
He studied criminal justice at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US, from 2016 to 2020, but after graduating, he returned to the Kingdom to develop sand skiing with Henrik May, a pioneer of the sport based in Namibia who has been deeply invested and rooted in it for more than three decades.
In February 2021, May received an email from NEOM, asking him for a Saudi skier who would be interested in filming a shoot on a slope they had prepared for skiing. He nominated Abdi, who took part in the first ski film ever shot in Saudi Arabia.
In March 2021, he received a call from the CEO of the Saudi Winter Sports Federation Sultan Salama, inviting him to Riyadh to meet the federation.
Abdi joined the federation in Riyadh and was able to participate and take part in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, which was set to start less than 11 months after he joined the federation.
In August 2021, he began to train in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. In December 2021, he participated in his first race in Kabdalis, Sweden, competing against athletes from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria. His second and third races were also in Sweden.
His next four races took place in Montenegro, where he accumulated enough points to qualify for the Olympics, hitting the goal on Dec. 24, 2021.
Abdi was born on Oct. 8, 1997, in San Diego, California. He was schooled at Dhahran Ahliya School from 2000 to 2012. From 2012 to 2016 he joined IMG Sports Academy in Bradenton, Florida.