One hundred days before the start of the Winter Olympics, it is too early for the weather forecast, but one thing is certain — there will be artificial snow, much to the dismay of environmental activists.
After three Winter Games criticized for being in traditionally non-ski areas — Sochi, Russia (2014), Pyeongchang, South Korea (2018) and Beijing (2022) — next year’s Olympics return to the Alps.
The Milano-Cortina Games are to be scattered across the mountains of northern Italy, with Cortina d’Ampezzo and Bormio hosting the alpine skiing, Anterselva the biathlon, Livigno the freestyle skiing and snowboarding, and Val di Fiemme the Nordic skiing.
Photo: AP
These resorts — most of which are within the soaring Dolomites range — are perched 1,200 to 1,800m above sea level, a height that should ensure sufficient snow cover for the event which is to be held from Feb. 6 to 22 next year.
However, artificial snow is to play a key role in the fourth Olympics Italy will host.
“No matter what, even if there is completely sufficient snowfall ... there will also be some fake snow,” University of California Santa Barbara researcher Jake Ward said.
“These kind of high-level snow sport competitions at this point have started to move towards fake snow at least as a portion of the coverage,” he said.
Doing so allows them to “specify the track conditions and make everything kind of exactly how they want for the races,” he added.
The international federations that govern skiing and biathlon require organizers to have snow production equipment on hand, should it be needed.
The Winter Games’ committee has said it plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow, which would require 948,000 cubic meters of water.
That includes more than half, or 580,000 cubic meters, for the Livigno Mottolino site alone, whose features is to include a snow park with a half-pipe as well as a big air ramp.
The artificial snow planned for next year would certainly use far less water than that required during the Beijing Winter Olympics, when 890,000 cubic meters was used for the alpine skiing site at Yanqing and 1.9 million cubic meters for all other snow sports, according to Olympic statistics.
Artificial snow is made using snow cannons and guns, which spray water using a stream of compressed air into the cold air, turning it into fine snow. Environmentalists condemn the energy consumption required and the vast resources of water needed.
The International Commission for the Protection of the Alps says it takes 1 cubic meter of water to make about 2.5 cubic meters of snow.
In Italy, eight national environmental groups in 2023 denounced what they considered a lack of respect for the environment and local communities by the Milan-Cortina 2026 Foundation.
Italy is the European country that uses the most artificial snow, with more than 90 percent of Italy’s ski slopes using artificial snowmaking systems, an April report from Italian environmental group Legambiente showed.
For Vanda Bonardo of Legambiente’s Lombardy chapter, “the ever-increasing weight of this industry on the mountains” is worrying.
“We have to ask ourselves whether it still makes sense to organize major events and concentrate them in very fragile spaces like the Alps. Natural snow is practically becoming the exception,” Bonardo said.
The snow cover in the Italian Alps had decreased by half in the past 100 years, said a study published in the International Journal of Climatology in December last year.
The issue goes far beyond next year’s Winter Olympics, Italian Alpine Club president Antonio Montani said.
“The Games are the tip of the iceberg, they shine a light on the real problem, which is the hundreds of ski resorts that are only able to operate with artificial snow, with huge energy costs and funded by public subsidies, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to open,” Montani said.
The International Olympic Committee itself has recognized a problem. According to its estimates, only 10 countries would still have the snow necessary to host the Winter Olympics in 2040.
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