Winter weather has been mostly absent during the Winter Games this century. Brown mountains with a thin ribbon of artificial snow, rows of snow cannons along the ski slopes and sometimes spring-like temperatures. The lack of coolness didn’t seem to be an obstacle for long, but that suddenly changed. Naturally cold weather is considered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a condition for receiving the best skiers and snowboarders.
This is not easy. Due to global warming, fewer and fewer winter sports resorts meet this requirement. Last week, the International Olympic Committee decided on an emergency procedure. The allocation of the 2030 Games, which were to be held next year, has been postponed. This is the first time. Only if a city can prove its ten-year freeze in the Olympic month of February does it stand a chance of winning the organization.
For a long time, the International Olympic Committee seemed insensitive to climate concerns. Over the past 20 years, she has not hesitated to choose places where there is neither cold nor snow. The most suspicious choice was the warm city of Sochi, as there was no sign of winter during the Games in February 2014. It was very cold in Beijing this year, but there was no snow.
Winter sports in warm places
The IOC now realizes that staging winter sports in warm locations undermines its own event. Making artificial snow and artificial snow costs a huge amount of energy and contributes to global warming.
Olympic history shows how serious the situation was. Canadian researchers found in 2021 that many of the 21 Olympic host sites are too hot to host the Winter Games. Take Chamonix for example, which hosted the first edition in 1924. There was no artificial ice or snow, it was cold enough. Not anymore.
The coming decades are looking even bleaker, says Peter Siegmund, a climate scientist at KNMI, now that climate targets for Paris are becoming more elusive. annual carbon dioxide emissions2 Still not decreasing. At the current rate of global warming, by 2050 there will only be four ancient Olympic venues with sufficient winter days. Then only the Norwegian Oslo and Lillehammer, the Japanese Sapporo and the American Lake Placid are eligible.
Whether those sites want that is the question. Lake Placid met the requirements in 1980, but now appears to be too small for the current Winter Games. Norway is perfect in many ways, but the Norwegians are skeptical of the costly IOC’s wishes. The same applies to many other western locations that can be considered, for example in the Alps.
Future Host Committee
Sapporo would be a viable candidate for decades to come. In fact, Salt Lake City and Vancouver are in the organization’s profile in 2030. The International Olympic Committee changed the allocation procedure for Olympic host cities three years ago. There are no longer elections where host cities compete against each other. Now a committee is trying to make a well-considered choice in consultation with interested sites. This “Future Host Committee” puts winter weather first and proposed a ten-year frost in February as a condition.
Because of sustainability, the Olympic Games Appropriation Commission also wants to get rid of the quadrennial search for new organizers. It aims for a rotation system in which a handful of cities take turns organizing the games. In this way, stadiums and other infrastructure can be reused. Then the Olympic ice rink will not end up as a frozen store, like the ice rink in Pyeongchang (2018).
new sites
Can new locations be conceived where it is cold enough? There is, but the weather isn’t the only factor. The IOC wants to move away from undemocratic countries like China and Russia, which are accustomed to asserting their authority in elections thanks to their deep, endless pockets. A return to such regimes seems unlikely in the current political climate. This also applies to Kazakhstan, which almost beat Beijing in the Winter Games race.
Perhaps moving to the Southern Hemisphere would be an option: This is virgin territory for the Winter Games, which have been held 21 times in the Northern Hemisphere. Chile, Argentina or New Zealand for example. KNMI expert Sigmund: “It’s remarkable that the Games weren’t there before. I can’t think of a climatic argument for that. And then the competitions won’t be in February but in our summer. It’s winter there after all.
Artificial snow is unfair and unsafe
The Arctic Winter Games are not just a matter of sustainability. It is also important for athletes, especially in snow sports (snow sports are held on artificial snow anyway). Artificial snow, as used in Beijing but also in Pyeongchang (2018), Sochi (2014) and before that in Vancouver (2010), is unfair. Fresh slope is of reasonable quality, but it deteriorates faster than real snow. Thus, the first skaters on the starting list have a disproportionate advantage. It is also not safe. Since its use in games, scientists have linked more falls.
