King Salman on Tuesday ordered that the General Sports Authority be transformed into a ministry with Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki Al-Faisal as the sports minister. Earlier, he was the chairman of the now defunct authority. Born on Jan. 4, 1983, Prince Abdul Aziz is an athlete and a talented entrepreneur. He spent most of his childhood in Europe, where he pursued an active lifestyle and was introduced to motorsports at an early age. Prior to his current role, Prince Abdul Aziz served as the vice chairman of the General Sports Authority. He attained his bachelor’s degree in politics from King Saud University in 2003 then went on to obtain a degree in politics at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the University of London in 2006. He also studied marketing at the College of Business Administration (CBA) in Jeddah from 2006 to 2010. Additionally, he graduated from the Formula BMW School in Bahrain in 2005. Prince Abdul Aziz has participated in many motor racing events and won various titles including the Porsche GT3 Championship in 2012 (he came in first), the Toyo Tires Cup in Dubai (first place), Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, Formula BMW Bahrain, ADAC GT Masters Round, Porsche GT3 CCME (which he won 9 times), Radical Masters AUH round (where he came in second), 24H Dubai race, 24H Series. He also participated in the Gulf Race12 Hours twice, coming in first place in 2014 and second place in 2015. He also succeeded outside the Middle East. In 2011, Prince Abdul Aziz won the first race in the FIA GT3 in Portugal. He is also known as the first Saudi to have participated in a GT3 European championship race. He won the championship.