Faster, Stronger, Wiser

Saudi Arabia's investments in sports and entertainment are delivering new opportunities for Saudi men and women to enjoy sports at every level, from watching Formula 1 races and top-level football matches to playing basketball in the street-or even winning international competitions, like rally star Dania Akeel.

Dania Akeel is flying the women-the flag for Saudi checkered flag of motorsports. Saudi Arabia's first female international rally driver is a FIA World Cup winner, a top-10 finisher at the grueling Dakar Rally, and an inspiration to Saudi women across the country.

Dania made history as the first Saudi woman to receive a racing license for Superbike circuit racing, and she is the first to win an international cross-country rally. In 2021, in her first year competing in the FIA World Cup for CrossCountry Bajas, she won the T3 category. Then, in early 2022 in Saudi Arabia, she posted a top-10 finish in her first Dakar Rally, a grueling two-week event that requires drivers to race through some of the most challenging terrain in the world.

"When I finished eighth in the Dakar, it didn't feel like it was just my own achievement," she says. "It was an achievement for all Saudi women and for our country. There was a very special collective feeling."

Dania has always loved moving fast, first on bicycles, horses, and go-karts as a young girl, and then on motorcycles and in rally cars. When she was at school in the U.K., at a time when women in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to drive, she booked her first driving lesson on her 17th birthday. A motorbike license followed, and when Dania moved back to the Middle East for work, the Saudi Motorsport Federation awarded her the historic racing license.

"I will never forget the feeling when they issued me a license that had never been awarded to a woman before," Dania says. "It taught me how fast rules can change and new opportunities can appear. It showed just how fast Saudi society was evolving." Today, five years after Saudi women won the right to drive, Dania's achievements have turned her into a role model for women across the country.