The consequences of climate change for winter sports are “alarming” for IOC President Thomas Bach.
By 2050, “between 50 and 60 percent of the former winter sports areas in Europe that were considered snow-sure and suitable for the Olympic Games would no longer exist,” said the head of the International Olympic Committee when asked by the German Press Agency.
Sources of income Hikers and mountain bikers
With this knowledge, these regions would no longer invest in snow and ice sports, but rather rely on other sources of income such as hikers and mountain bikers. This will significantly reduce the number of places that might host World Cups and Winter Games. In addition, the winters will shorten with climate change. “That then raises the question of how much time is left for a World Cup, a World Cup, the Olympic or Paralympic Games,” said Bach. Factors like these might also have an impact on the format and program of the Winter Games in the future.
Winter Games postponed to 2024
The IOC recently postponed the allocation of the 2030 Winter Games planned for next year to 2024. According to the umbrella organization, the reason for this was that the responsible selection committee should first consult more intensively with experts and associations on the consequences of global warming and sustainable winter sports.
Bach’s IOC are threatening to run out of possible hosts for the Winter Games premium product, so the Ring Circle has activated an emergency plan. A rotation model is being discussed for the future. Winter Games might then alternately only take place in a few places with existing competition venues and guaranteed frosty weather.
Applicants must meet temperature requirements
At the most recent deliberations of the IOC leadership, the members of the executive had intensively debated sustainable winter sports. The decision: The commission for the selection of future games hosts should take more time to discuss the consequences of global warming for the allocation process of the Winter Olympics with associations and scientists. Among other things, it is being discussed that applicants will have to prove temperatures below freezing over a period of ten years in the classic Olympic month of February.
Difficult to find hosts of Winter Games
A group of researchers had recently determined that most of the previous organizers of winter games at the end of the century might no longer offer reliably fair and safe conditions for the Olympics. “Even a low-emission future can no longer prevent many former venues from being considered for the Winter Games in the future,” said tourism researcher Robert Steiger from the University of Innsbruck.
Only Sapporo and Salt Lake City were left as serious candidates for the 2030 Olympics. Vancouver seems out of the running following the province of British Columbia refused a billion-dollar grant.
Meanwhile, Sapporo is struggling with the followingmath of the controversial Corona Games in Tokyo and a corruption scandal surrounding the recent summer games in Japan. Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto therefore announced that efforts to organize the games would be paused and internal processes examined. Salt Lake City doesn’t want to be the host until 2034, since a US metropolis is already hosting the summer edition in Los Angeles in 2028.
Saudi Arabia wants to build mountain resort
The question is whether climate change and the fear of a billion dollar grave will leave enough people interested in the wintry mega-spectacle in the long term. However, at least one new potential player is probably not the IOC’s favourite. Saudi Arabia wants to create a gigantic mountain resort in the middle of the desert by 2026. In 2029, the Asian Winter Games are to be held there. The IOC claimed that it had never been asked regarding this project.
