Winter Olympians witness climate disaster

Snow surfer Jamie Anderson spent part of the summer and fall in Switzerland preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. In previous sessions in the Alps, the 31-year-old said she witnessed a piece of ice break on a glacier. This year, he saw them break and fall in droves, plus he noticed more waterfalls forming as he practiced his spins and grabs.

It is “a physical and pure testimony of how twisted climate change is ”, said Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist. “You can see the decline of the glaciers”.

Many of the top athletes on the US team said they saw deteriorating conditions up close this summer as they prepared for the Beijing Olympics in February. Elite skiers and snowboarders often train on glaciers in the Alps, Rocky Mountains, and other high altitudes in the off-season, in addition to regular work outside the snow.

At a meeting of the United States Olympic team on Monday, athletes noted that rising temperatures are affecting their alpine sports.

Skier Alex Hall, who now trains in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, said that in the past five years, summers felt longer, ski seasons shorter, as park teams struggle to hold the ground. “It’s melting a lot ”, said. “They are doing everything possible to keep the parks in good condition.”

Snow surfer Maddie Mastro specializes in acrobatic skiing, which requires a lot of snow to build the ramp, noting that facilities are increasingly scarce around the world due to weather conditions.

Biathletes Clare Egan and Susan Dunklee, whose sport combines cross-country skiing and target shooting, said that where they compete today there is less natural snow than ever before, so it has had to be replaced by a man-made version.

“The places where we compete can make snow for elite athletes ”, said Dunklee. “My concern is, as a snow lover, that I want to see snow in places where it has historically existed.”.

Warmer temperatures have damaged alpine areas at all altitudes and around the world. Some pre-Winter Olympics cities, such as Sochi in Russia and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, may never again be cold enough to host world-class alpine sports, according to researchers led by the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

The Beijing Games could test the limits of artificial snow. The outdoor events will take place in the mountains north of the capital, where typical snowfall is only 7 to 8 inches a year.

Making enough snow will require approximately 186 million liters of water, so before the offer was approved, the International Olympic Committee expressed concern that “Beijing would have overestimated the ability to recover water to make snow”.

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo saw the summer version of climate chaos, when record temperatures in July forced organizers to reschedule some daytime events and move marathons and foot races more than 500 miles north to Sapporo in search of cooler air.

“It’s pretty scary to see what happens”Said of the conditions in the mountains Red Gerard, who won a gold medal as a teenager at the 2018 Olympics in snow surfing. “It is definitely impressive to see how climate change does its thing “.