Winter Olympics: Climate Change Makes Competition Harder
Tuesday, 2026/02/10278 words4 minutes606 reads
The Winter Olympics are confronting an existential crisis as climate change fundamentally alters the landscape of competitive winter sports. At the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, artificial snow will constitute 85% of the total snow coverage, exemplifying the growing dependence on snowmaking technology to maintain viable competition conditions amid declining natural snowfall and shortened winter seasons.
This reliance on artificial snow, while operationally necessary, introduces significant safety concerns. According to a 2022 Loughborough University report, artificial snow's denser, icier composition—resulting from reduced air trapped in its structure—substantially elevates injury risk. Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto, characterizes the difference starkly: "It's the difference between falling on the pavement and falling on grass." Athletes experience not increased fall frequency, but rather more severe consequences when falls occur.
The ramifications extend beyond competition safety to fundamentally reshape training paradigms. Canadian freestyle coach Philippe Marquis reports that his team has been unable to train at Whistler Blackcomb for two consecutive summers due to glacial melt and diminishing snowpack, necessitating costly relocations to South America. "The margin of manoeuvre is that much tighter," he observes, noting increased knee and back injuries among mogul skiers navigating artificial snow at speeds exceeding 120 km/h.
The long-term prognosis is sobering. Research from the University of Waterloo indicates that of 21 venues that have hosted Winter Olympics since 1924, only 10 will possess adequate climate suitability by 2050. Despite these challenges, experts concur that abandoning snowmaking would prove catastrophic, potentially limiting viable host locations to merely four resorts globally. The future of winter sports thus hinges on adaptive strategies including strategic scheduling adjustments, rotating host models, and continued technological innovation in snowmaking.
