Beijing 2022: Does artificial snow at the Winter Olympics pose a threat to the future of the Games?
A report released earlier this week has detailed how maintaining Olympic level slopes in Beijing will require the use of 49m gallons (222m litres) of water which is chemically treated, before being put into 130 snow-making machines
By David Garrido
Last Updated: 28/01/22 2:08pm
Let's set the scene: stunning panoramic vistas… vast, expansive, crisp slopes… sunlight glinting off the brilliantly white surface… idyllic, calm natural surrounds… just breathe in that cool, clean mountain air.
Welcome to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. But what if it was too good to be true? In the sense that the snow at least is almost entirely fake. It's artificial. Looks the part, largely feels the part, but it is just not the same.
In this very location, where the world's best ski and snow athletes will be competing at the pinnacle of their respective sports from next Friday, there is next to no natural snow.
What's the big deal? It's the fact that artificial snow is a far from ideal solution to mitigate a much bigger problem, as described in the 'Slippery Slopes' report, released earlier this week by Loughborough University, the Sport Ecology Group and outdoor climate action charity Protect Our Winters.
The report details how, in order to keep conditions up to Olympic competition standard in Beijing, they will use 49m gallons (222m litres) of water which is chemically treated and frozen, before putting it in 130 snow-making machines, which themselves need huge amounts of energy to be run. And it's not just the fan-driven snow generators; eight water cooling towers are required, around 300 snowmaking guns, fed by three pumping stations at different altitudes, all in one of the world's most water-scarce cities.
But it doesn't end there. Chemical and biological additives can be mixed in to improve snow quality, salt and fertilizer too (so-called 'snow hardeners') for cross-country trails in particular, and that chemical composition can decrease biodiversity and disrupt vegetation. Suddenly the picture is far from perfect, and for the athletes, it can be a genuine concern.
'Hopefully it won't be dangerous'
Katie Ormerod, a Team GB freestyle snowboarder selected for the Games, grew up in Yorkshire, riding mainly in indoor centres which use artificial snow.
"I am a bit used to it, but it is a bit different when you're snowboarding at the Olympics and on the biggest jumps in the world essentially," she told Sky Sports News.
"I'm hoping that it will be okay and not too different in that way and hopefully it'll feel safe and it won't be dangerous conditions or anything, but we won't really know what it will be like until we get there and try it out."
In terms of what is happening globally, Canadian Philippe Marquis asserts in the report that "conditions are definitely more dangerous than what we've seen before", while British freestyle skier Laura Donaldson is quoted as saying "poor snow is less stable under the skis and it may not fully cover rocks and plants".
As for artificial snow, it can create a faster and harder surface, which means severe injuries are more likely when falls do happen. But that isn't even the greatest issue at play here. It is undeniable that the climate emergency and global warming is causing this severe lack of natural snow - shown by shorter seasons, lower snowfall levels and melting glaciers, which in turn cause rising sea levels.
Lesley McKenna, a three-time Winter Olympian for Team GB and ambassador for Protect Our Winters UK, says that makes it harder for elite competitors to plan ahead if they can't find consistent high-level training conditions.
"If there's a lack of snow in general, athletes who want to train more often can't access training facilities," McKenna told Sky Sports News. "The resources are more pressured, so people tend to make hasty decisions or rush through things. At one point the winter season might have been six months long. It's now three months long."
McKenna's career as snow-sport athlete, coach and now team manager has spanned the last 30 years or so, but even in the far shorter time that 24-year-old Ormerod has been an active snowboarder, she too has already witnessed first-hand the effects of climate change.
"The glaciers are getting smaller, the seasons seem all over the place and it is really worrying," she says.
'Governments must take action now'
Returning to the Winter Olympics, the Slippery Slopes report quotes a projection of the suitability of previous hosts to stage the Games again in the future. Of the 19 venues, if the trajectory of current high carbon emissions continues, only 10 of them would still be reliable by the 2050s and only six by the 2080s. And Beijing, perhaps unsurprisingly, wouldn't feature on either list. There isn't a starker way of illustrating that the sport is under threat.
So what are the solutions? Here, another couple of Britons have some suggestions. "We need to solve climate change at the source (reduce greenhouse gas emissions), rather than rely on mitigation-focused solutions," freestyle skiing champion Peter Speight told the report.
Britain's only four-time Winter Olympian snowboarder Zoe Gillings-Brier struck an even more urgent and unequivocal note: "Governments from all countries in the world have to make real changes to use more green energy. Now."
For Ormerod, her immediate focus is Beijing and, having in December achieved her highest World Cup finish since February 2020, she goes into these Games knowing she has what it takes to do well.
In the long-term, though, the climate crisis is painting a far more uncertain, far more perilous picture.
"I always imagined that I'd be able to snowboard on real snow in the mountains for as long as possible, like when I'm old," Ormerod said. "So it is worrying that if things keep going as they are, we might have to be riding on artificial snow. Hopefully we can change things before it's too late."
