When Rakan Alireza makes history next year as the first Saudi athlete to compete in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympic Games, he hopes to do so with the support of Saudi-made, high-performance sensors developed in laboratories at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). 

“The way modern science and its applications in sports are growing is incredible,” Alireza said. He anticipates that KAUST sensor technology could play an important role in his training ahead of Milano Cortina 2026, as well as within the Kingdom’s broader sports sector. “Athletes are trying to train smarter, not just harder, and we’re all chasing that top one percent — trying to work with everything we have to maximize performance.”