Lama AlFozan, Vice President of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, is a trailblazer for Saudi women in sport. From founding the Kingdom’s first female fencing team to helping drive the national strategy under Vision 2030, she is shaping the future of Saudi sport. In this exclusive interview, she shares how far the country has come — and why she believes the best is still ahead.
Things have changed like night and day. I was one of the early female athletes in Saudi, and when I started there were only about 200 female athletes in the whole country. Today we have more than 7,000. We’ve changed massively since Vision 2030.
Sport now plays a huge role in diversifying our economy away from oil. It creates jobs, we’re hosting many international events, and we’ve also launched a comprehensive national sports strategy. That strategy stands on three main pillars.
The first is to increase mass participation. If you look at the numbers before Vision 2030, only about 13% of people practiced sport. Today that figure is more than 48%, which means we’ve actually exceeded our goal of 40%. That shows we’re on the right path.
The second pillar is to encourage and facilitate the progression of athletes from amateur to elite levels. And the third is developing our elite athletes — that’s something I specialise in. As I told you before, I got my master’s degree on exactly this topic: how to develop elite athletes. We’ve been participating in international competitions and the Olympics, but we’re not yet where I believe Saudi should be. So we’re bench-marking ourselves against top institutes like INSEP in France, UK sports institutes, and other global models, as well as the US system.
We need to build facilities with the best strength and conditioning, the best trainers, and the best infrastructure so that athletes can truly thrive. It’s also about bringing in top talents for coaching, because I firmly believe that without the right trainers, it’s very hard to develop as an athlete. Then there’s going on the right boot camps and competitions — and there are many projects and initiatives from the Ministry of Sport and the Saudi Olympic Committee, like the Federations Transformation Programme.
I think the future for Saudi sport looks extremely bright. We’re going to be hosting major international competitions like the Asian Games and the World Cup. We’ve already been hosting big events like boxing, tennis, golf. Honestly, when I start talking about sports, I get so excited — I don’t know when to stop! But yes, things are looking very good.
That’s why you’re doing this job…
Exactly.
We’ve recently seen the emergence of the “Sports Boulevard” project — which is a sign of how far things have come… and are going. It’s impressive.
Yes, absolutely. There’s a conscious decision to change the country’s infrastructure to adapt more to sports, entertainment and tourism. We’ve been building many projects. Sports Boulevard is one of them, but we also have Qiddiya and NEOM, plus huge entertainment and tourism developments like the Red Sea and Amaala.
We realised we needed to invest both externally and internally. The PIF — one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world — has been investing massively in real estate projects that will transform Saudi Arabia, create jobs, and diversify the economy.
When you look at the World Cup, we’re now building more than 11 stadiums in preparation. We’re also building many sports facilities and gyms. We understand how important it is to have a healthy nation, and ultimately, a healthy society means a stronger economy.
In the past, sport wasn’t something most people did on a daily basis in Saudi. Now that’s changing…
Many new projects are being developed to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles, to bring families out to walk, run, cycle. Even the mentality is changing — now in Saudi you see many cycling and running clubs, which we didn’t have before. People would walk, run, cycle, but we simply didn’t have the right infrastructure. Now we’re building it. With Sports Boulevard coming and with King Salman Park, people have more and more places to practice sport and discover new hobbies. All of this is being done for the people, and it’s absolutely in line with the bigger picture of Vision 2030.
Talking about tourism — the fact that all these major sporting events are coming up really puts Saudi Arabia on the map in a way that’s never happened before.
Exactly. Who would have thought we’d be hosting the World Cup? We also have the Asian Games, the Winter Games. We’ve recently hosted world tennis tournaments, major golf events, Formula 1, Formula E. These are huge events that people actually fly in for.
Another interesting point: you were at the Paris Olympics with the first Saudi female athlete to actually qualify on her own merit. That was an important milestone.
Yes, this was truly a historic moment. I’m not sure how many people realise that, until then, our female athletes had only competed in the Olympics through wild cards — essentially invitations from the IOC. But at the last Olympics, we had our very first female athlete who qualified outright. We’re extremely proud of her. Her name is Dunya Abutaleb, and I was there for her match — I was literally screaming at the top of my lungs! Hopefully she’s just the first of many more to come. She won’t be the last.
How is swimming progressing in Saudi?
We recently celebrated our first female swimmer at the Olympics, which was a huge moment for us. Swimming is one of the 12 priority sports identified under our national strategy because it’s seen as a medal opportunity. It’s definitely a sport we’re investing in and looking closely at.
How did you get into sports?
I always loved cycling and swimming, although I’ll admit I’m not a very good swimmer! I loved horseback riding too, but we couldn’t afford a horse growing up. Equestrianism is such a beautiful sport — I wish I could have practiced it properly. The first time I ever tried it, the trainer told me I looked like a professional because I could just get on the horse naturally.
Then I tried fencing as a hobby. I got in contact with the Fencing Federation and the Saudi Olympic Committee, and we went on to create Saudi Arabia’s first female fencing team. We started going to competitions.
At first, very few females could even participate — there weren’t venues for us to practice because it simply wasn’t allowed back then. After Vision 2030, everything changed. Now we have almost 500 female fencers and many more clubs. I’m incredibly proud of how far it’s come and of what our female athletes are achieving.
You must be such an inspiration for Saudi women who want to get into sport!
I hope so. It’s truly an honour and a privilege that I was able to help pave the way for more Saudi women to practice sport. I remember coming home with my fencing gear and my parents would wonder what on earth I was doing. We’d have guests over and there I’d be coming in with my sword — it was definitely unusual in a conservative society. But over time, my dad became my biggest supporter. He’d come to my competitions, along with my mum, my uncles — at first, they thought it was a bit odd, but now they’re so proud. I’ve even inspired my cousins and friends to get involved. That makes me incredibly happy.
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Read also: Historic day for Saudi women in sport thanks to Dunya Abutaleb
