What would you do if you were training for a race in a sport you'd never tried, in a climate you don't live in, using equipment that takes five minutes to put on — with your coach's help? What if you were considered too old to start, no one believed in you, and you had only four months to qualify? To succeed, you'd need what Rakan Alireza had — determination, devotion, and a little bit of delusion. At 29, the Jeddah-born athlete has qualified as a cross-country skier for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, becoming the first Saudi to do so. But the road there was anything but easy. It demanded courage, endurance, and an unshakable belief in himself. Ironically, Alireza calls himself an "accidental athlete." He started working out years ago just so he could eat more — never imagining it would one day lead him to the Winter Olympics. When he began training in 2021 in the small Swedish town of Torsby, he had only ever tried downhill skiing and — understandably — assumed cross-country would be similar. It wasn't. "I would see little girls zooming past me, older people, people with disabilities — they were all skiing past me. I was humbled," Alireza said. "Coach was holding me for balance as I was putting my skis on, and that's when I started laughing. I realized I couldn't think four months ahead — I needed to take things one step at a time." That "Coach" is Christer Skog — a world-renowned Swedish cross-country skier and Guinness World Record holder who has trained national teams from the UK, US, Australia, Czech Republic, and Sweden. So why did such an accomplished coach take on a Saudi beginner? "It was the biggest challenge you could have," Skog said. "The more countries there are in the sport, the better it becomes. I've coached beginners before, but never one who wanted to go to the Olympics." To reach Olympic level, Alireza trained up to five hours a day, alternating between skiing and endurance work. "Coach had a tendency to manipulate me — in a good way — so training didn't feel like training," Alireza laughed. "Once, I was exhausted, and he asked if I wanted mushroom pasta for dinner. He said we'd pick the mushrooms fresh — that turned into a two-hour hike." Cross-country skiing demands one of the highest oxygen uptakes of any sport, often in temperatures as low as –20°C. But Skog saw an advantage in Alireza's Saudi roots. "Hot climates can actually improve endurance for oxygen-intensive sports," he said. "I make Rakan run outdoors daily. But most of all, I tell him — race against yourself." Back in Jeddah, Alireza trains on roller skis along the Corniche. Roller skiing, a legitimate Olympic-qualifying sport, has gained attention in the city thanks to his and Skog's efforts to promote it. He also ties a tire behind his back for resistance training, rows, and runs — finding creative ways to replicate snow conditions in the desert. "Someone asked Coach if I'd have been better had I lived in Sweden. He said maybe not — maybe I'd have lost interest doing the same thing every day."
