Is Changing Climate Sabotaging Olympic Skiers Like Mikaela Shiffrin?

Our climate is definitely changing in response to human activities and Greenhouse Gases. There are also changes that happen on more seasonal scales like drought. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. My wife Ayana and I were watching the giant slalom competition last night. Noted U.S. skiing champion Mikaela Shiffrin went down only 11 seconds into the course. At one point, I pointed out to my wife that none of the surrounding mountains had snow on them and that the snow on the course was artificially generated. Let’s explore how changing (seasonal and long-term) climate may be challenging some Olympic skiers.

The ski slopes for the Beijing Winter Olympics are actually in Yanqing, China, a suburb 45 miles northwest of the city. According to Weather-Atlas.com, February receives the most snowfall days at that location (3.6 days), but the average amount is only 33 mm. If you do the math conversion, that is only 1.29 inches. For the year, the location only receives about 7.8 inches of snowfall on average. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that Yanqing is not a particularly snowy place, and this season the region is in a meteorological drought too.

Because of the circumstances, Olympic organizers are using hundreds of artificial snowmaking machines to ensure that there is enough snow for the events. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory website, “The water used to make the snow gets piped in from the nearby Foyukou and Baihepu reservoirs.” The artificial snow-laden ski routes are tucked among brown hillsides as seen in the NASA Landsat image below. However, the inclines are some of the steepest at a 68-degree incline.

Here’s the problem with the manufactured snow. Many skiers (but not all) and other Winter Olympic competitors have complained that artificial snow becomes extremely slick and icy. As we watched Shiffrin and other competitors last night, the commentators alluded several times to the course conditions but never specifically mentioned the artificial snow. CNN’s Derek Van Dam recently wrote, “French cross-country skier Clement Parisse, the bronze medal winner at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, told CNN that while it's not uncommon to have to compete on human-made snow, it tends to become very slick and icy, which presents added challenges.” For some ski racing, University of Utah snow expert, Jim Steenburgh, tweeted such conditions may actually be preferable, and Shiffrin is not blaming the conditions. Making snow is also very resource intensive. It requires a lot of energy, water, and money.

According to Climate Central, “China experienced its hottest year on record in 2021....Beijing experienced record-breaking warmth last February, when temperatures climbed 40 °F above normal.” With continuing drought conditions in the Olympic region, the snowmaking process is an expensive (and loud) activity. So why is the integrity and safety of the sports being compromised? Many indicators suggest that climate change is a driver. First of all, there are very few places in the world suitable to host a Winter Olympics. Of the 19 places that have hosted in the past 70 years, they are warming. Climate Central analyses show that February temperatures have increase by almost 5 °F on average in those 19 venue locations since 1950. According to Berkeley Earth, that’s roughly 3 times the global average warming rate. February temperatures in the Beijing area have been even warmer at 8.9 °F since 1950.

A 2022 study published in the scholarly journal Current Issues in Tourism also confirmed that the winter season seems to be shortening and warming. These changes have led to an increase in unfair-unsafe conditions over the past 70 years according to the study authors. Under the worst-case scenario climate projections, the study also reveals that the number of future suitable host sites from a weather-climate perspective declines to four by mid-century.: Oslo, Lake Placid, Sapporo, and Lillehammer, Oslo, and Sapporo). By 2100, only Sapporo is suitable.

With these kinds of numbers, I see a lot more fake snow on the Olympic horizon on the horizon, and according to some athletes, that is not a good thing. From my lens, speeding down a mountain going around markers is already pretty challenging in itself. And now this.

Updated at 11:38 am