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.” 

KAUST Professor Dana Alsulaiman, Materials Science and Applied Physics, shares the Olympian’s vision for in-Kingdom collaboration between academic researchers and elite athletes for the glory of Saudi Arabia. Discussions with Alireza and his coach are supporting the repurposing of key technologies from her lab for athletics, preventative health, and wellness, she noted. Together with Alireza, she also co-chaired a first for both KAUST and the nation: the Saudi Sports Sensors Workshop 2025. 

“We’re tackling issues that are important to Saudi Arabia, but we're also developing technologies that are Saudi-made — we’re contributing to localizing innovation,” Alsulaiman said. “A lot of these sensors, we hope, are going to be created inside KAUST.”

Read more at KAUST News.