As is widely known, climate change is causing huge impacts on the entire globe. Wildfires, melting glaciers, increased disease spread, and extreme weather are just some of the catastrophic effects of the Earth’s warming.
However, what most don’t know is that it is affecting one of the biggest and most popular international sports events featuring athletes from over 200 nations: The Olympics. Specifically, the Winter Olympic Games.
Why?
It turns out the answer is pretty simple. Winter events such as skiing need an area with snow. However, with the rapidly warming climate, it is predicted that many regions won’t get enough snow.
Bormio, the location for 2026 skiing events, has already been seeing patches of bare ground without any snow to cover it. Due to this, machines had to be used in order to generate snow so that the events could still continue. However, the process of making snow requires a lot of energy. Compressed air and water must be made into droplets which then freeze, which means a lot of water and electricity is required. This leads to even more negative effects on the climate, further adding to the climate burden. Here, we can see a positive feedback loop: warming climates lead to a lack of snow, a lack of snow leads to increased energy usage, and that causes more negative environmental harms, causing the loop to go back to the original issue of increasing global warming.
Additionally, a recent study showed that the conditions of the Olympics locations will dramatically get worse by the time of the Paralympics. The Paralympics are similar to the Olympics, but meant for athletes with disabilities. It is held shortly after the general Olympic Games in the same locations. A 2024 study predicted that by the 2050s, only slightly over 50 locations would be climate-resilient enough to host the Olympics and Paralympics.
The number of available locations where it is feasible to host Olympic Games continues to decline, and with climate change rapidly increasing, the situation simply seems to be getting worse. Due to this, both the Olympics and the Paralympics might be moved up to earlier in the year going forward, which would likely be able to double the amount of Olympics-viable locations for the Paralympics in the 2050s. However, this can’t keep happening, as it isn’t a practical long-term solution. If warming continues to increase at exponential rates, we will eventually reach a point when moving the date simply won’t do anything.
One thing is known for sure, and that is the unfortunate reality that unless action is taken, climate change will seep more and more into our everyday lives. At first, it was an issue that many ignored, but let the Olympics be a wake up call to everyone that climate change truly is in the present.
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