Israeli athlete Shachar Sagiv competed in the Super League Triathlon in the Saudi City of Neom on Saturday becoming the first Israeli athlete to ever participate in an event in Saudi Arabia whose leadership started recently to normalize informal ties with the Israeli occupation state.
Sagiv competed in Neom on the same day that an Israeli tennis player faced off against a Saudi opponent in Bahrain.
Israeli Olympic committee head Yael Arad described Sagiv’s presence at the Super League Triathlon in Saudi Arabia as a “very significant breakthrough.”
“In the past year we have seen many Arab states come to terms with the fact that hosting an international tournament means hosting Israelis” she said in a statement.
“This is a growing trend and the true force in normalization between nations and especially people” she added.
Sagiv 28 was eliminated from the race after falling off his bike but his coach Lior Cohen hailed his participation in the sports event on Facebook saying that “Shachar came to make professional history and not only diplomatic history.”
Sagiv’s participation comes amid warming bilateral ties between Saudi Arabia and the occupation state especially after the Gulf kingdom opened last July its airspace to Israeli airliners and recently allowed Israeli businessmen into the country.
