Climate change has been a recurring problem for the whole world in a very long time: the last 40 years were marked by melting of glaciers, sea level and temperature rise, reduction in snow cover – everything was impacted by the extreme and unnecessary human intervention in nature. Not only it affects the living of all the organisms involved in this environment, but, of course, impacts our living too; as many people forget, humans are dependent on nature like all other living beings.
It may seem obvious, but there is a legion of people who deny the existence of global warming – called denialists, they reject verifiable facts and scientific evidence in favor of false and manipulated assumptions. Contradicting all of those who believe and fuel these theories, the 2026 Winter Olympics, hosted in northern Italy, brought unprecedented news: in the near future, outdoor sports might become an impractical distant memory.
How this impacts the Winter Olympics
The first ever Winter Olympics, in 1924, had all its events held in open-air, with real snow as it was supposed to be. Almost 100 years later, in 2026, data published by the Talanoa Institute reveals that 85% of the snow used in competitions is artificial, driven by cannons on the tournament tracks – almost one billion liters of water were needed to accomplish these preparations. And this is not the first time: the practice of producing and using artificial snow has been in place since the 2014 games based in Sochi, Russia. It’s unfortunate, but it’s easy to conclude that without machines and large volumes of water, the event simply would not happen.
With cities getting hotter, fewer places will be able to host the Winter Olympics: according to a study conducted by the academic publisher Taylor & Francis, of the 93 cities that have already hosted or could host the games, only 87 have favorable conditions for this type of sport. By 2050, however, that number is expected to drop to 52. This impacts not only the realization of the event itself, but also the preparation of the athletes, who go through the well-known ‘snow hunt’, searching for places that are still cold enough to practice. The situation is also becoming detrimental to their performance: uneven ice layers and harder rinks increase the risk of injury and accidents.
Another controversy that spans this Olympic year is the partnership between the 2026 event and the Italian energy company Eni, one of the biggest gas and oil corporations that invests primarily in the fossil fuel economy – which is the major contributor to the intense and extreme weather events the world and the winter games are facing. Claiming to provide sustainable energy solutions and renewable fuels, Eni was called out by many environmental groups, accused of using the Olympics to ‘greenwash’ their image. The Greenpeace organization has protested on this, reporting how threatening this industry is for the winter sports and the world as a whole: “If we want to keep winter – for athletes, for nature, for all of us – we must stop the polluters”.
Winter isn’t the only victim
Human intervention in nature also affects summer sports: the choice of Tahiti, in French Polynesia to host the surfing competitions of the 2024 Olympics was very much controversial, due to the structure needed for practice and judging of the sport that could be harmful to the environment. The construction of a metal judging tower was criticized by the locals and the athletes, arguing that it would damage the reef and cause irreparable damage to the village’s habitat. Brazilian surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb, in an interview with ESPN, talked about the decision to build something so damaging in that area: “I started going to Tahiti in 2014, and since then I’ve seen how much that place has changed. It makes my heart very sad. You want to keep seeing the place where you grew up stay the same until you die”.
Surfing itself has also grown into something dangerous due to tropical storms becoming more frequent and more intense, which cause big wave surf spots to receive larger and longer-lasting swells. Global warming affects ocean temperatures, wave formation and sea rising, potentially intensifying winds and storms that make the sea more violent.
Another case of climate impacts on sports occurred at the 2022 FIFA World Cup: to circumvent the climatic conditions, the games took place in November instead of their usual date between May and July, as summer temperatures in Qatar can exceed 50°C. The Middle East region has experienced greater temperature increases than the rest of the world in recent years, also escalating the periods of drought. Such events may be directly linked to the fact that the region is a major emitter of greenhouse gases and trader of fossil fuels.
Summer or winter, it is proven that the climate collapse is damaging to everyone, not only a specific group of athletes or locals, but to the whole world in every aspect: discovering what happens behind the scenes in sports is essential to ensuring that competitions continue to exist in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
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The article above was edited by Julia Galoro.
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