'The margin of manoeuvre is that much tighter': Why it's becoming harder to compete at the Winter Olympics

A warming climate and the use of artificial snow is making it more dangerous and difficult to compete at the Winter Olympics.

In the Italian Dolomites, snow machines will pump out a total of 50,000 cubic metres (1.76 million cubic feet) of artificial snow over the next two weeks, to ensure pristine conditions for the skiing and snowboarding events at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Situated at an altitude of 1,816m (5,958ft), Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites, has plenty of snowfall. Despite this, event organisers tell the BBC that artificial snow will account for 85% of total snow at the Games, “to guarantee athletes the highest-quality surface, ensuring fair and safe competition conditions throughout the entire event”.

But coaches, athletes and researchers have expressed concerns about the use of artificial snow, which they say is making snow sports more unpredictable and dangerous, increasing their risk of injury and making training more difficult and expensive.

It’s the difference between falling on the pavement and falling on grass – Madeleine Orr

It has been almost 50 years since artificial snow was first used at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. In the past decade, event organisers have become increasingly reliant on the technology to maintain conditions as mountain snowfall continues to decline globally and snow seasons have become shorter. The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were the first Games to depend entirely on artificial snow.

Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Menna Fitzpatrick tells the BBC that “with winter conditions changing so much, artificial snow plays a big role in keeping races running and the calendar consistent”. The Para-Alpine skier, who has six Paralympic medals, says that “from a racing point of view, that reliability is really important”. Fitzpatrick will be competing at the Paralympics in early March after recovering from a serious knee injury in December.

Falling harder

But reliability comes with risks. Athletes are at greater likelihood of injury when competing on artificial snow, which is harder, icier and denser than natural snow, as it traps less air in its structure, according to a 2022 report by Loughborough University in the UK.

“It’s the difference between falling on the pavement and falling on grass,” says Madeleine Orr, one of the report’s authors and an assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto in Canada and formerly at Loughborough, whose research focuses on how climate change impacts sport. She says she has noticed trends in the data on injury rates. “People aren’t falling more on artificial snow, but when they do fall, it’s a harder surface, and therefore there is a higher risk of injury.”

In the 2022 report, athletes and coaches expressed concern about the increase in injuries and the impact climate change is having on training and competitive events.

When “freestyle super pipes are formed from snow-making machines in a poor [natural snow] season, the walls of the pipe are solid, vertical ice and the pipe floor is solid ice,” says Laura Donaldson, a Scottish freestyle skier, who competed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. “This is dangerous for athletes, some have died.”

However not all athletes feel artificial snow use is a significant change. “As athletes we’re pretty used to training and racing in all sorts of environments, so artificial snow is just another part of that,” says Fitzpatrick. “I grew up skiing on indoor slopes in Britain, so it’s never really felt out of the ordinary for me,” she adds.

“Ski racing will always come with risks, and that’s something we all accept,” she says. “Injuries are part of the sport, and while we work hard to reduce the risks, there are so many variables that I don’t see artificial snow as a key issue.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260206-why-its-becoming-harder-to-compete-at-the-winter-olympics