The Winter Olympics in Trouble?
Image by Phạm Nhật.
One Hundred Percent (100%) of Olympians believe excessive levels of climate change are real and a serious threat to ecosystems that support life. That is an intentional lie, but it may very well be true. Nobody experiences the upheaval of climate change like Olympians. “I couldn’t watch it happen and not say anything about it.” (Bea Kim, snowboarder Olympian from California, Can the Winter Olympics be Saved? Talking Climate, Feb. 11, 2026)
Bea is a member of POW (Protect Our Winters Now) founded by Jeremy Jones, a U.S. snowboarder. A POW letter signed by over 200 ski professionals addressed the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s failure to support climate polices. POW wants to see climate action, cuts in greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2, or the snow will be gone.. Their sport is at risk. Their professions hang in the balance of climate change policy maneuvering on the world stage; will nation/states adhere to Paris ’15 commitments to cut emissions by cutting fossil fuels? So far, that balance is hanging by a very thin thread, pointedly downward.
Bea spoke at the UN during the International Day of Sport: “Through my travels as a professional snowboarder, I’ve gone around the world, and I’ve seen one common theme throughout… The world is changing. The glaciers are melting that we’re actually riding on. Our winters are starting later. The weather patterns are becoming erratic. Each year we wonder if there will even be enough snow to compete and do what we love,” Ibid.
Olympians are knowledgeable about the impact of climate change. Prior to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Norwegian skier Nikolai Shirmer delivered a “Ski Fossil Free” petition to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) calling for an investigation into the propriety of fossil fuel sponsorships in winter sports. “The show goes on while the things you depend on to do your job – winter—is disappearing in front of your very eyes.” The petition has 21,000 signatures seeking answers as to why the sport accepts sponsorship from the likes of British Petroleum and others committing to massive, and increasing, amounts of greenwashing to trick (brainwash) the public that fossil fuels are just great. But Olympians are not buying into the ruse.
“In the 70 years since Cortina first held the Winter Games in 1956, February temperatures in the northern Italian town have warmed 6.4°F” (Mllano Cortina 2026: Warming Winter Olympics, Climate Central, Jan. 31, 2026). That’s fossil fuel CO2 hard at work.
“All of the other cities to host the Winter Olympics since 1950 have warmed since then — threatening the reliability, safety, and fairness of outdoor winter sports competitions,” ibid.
A recent study found that of the 93 ideal locations for winter Olympics, nearly one-half will no longer be good host sites within the next couple decades because of climate change. This assumes climate change does not speed up much beyond current circumstances. But since the turn of the century, climate change has been like a rocket ship taking off, gaining speed as it barrels ahead, accelerating, not decelerating. For example, according to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, global surface temperature since 2000 has increased by 222%, from 0.4°C above the 20th century average to 1.29°C above by 2024.
According to the 2024 Annual Climate Report by NOAA, the heating of land and ocean combined has increased three times the 1850-1975 rate, per decade, since 1975. That long-term trend of 125 years has been crushed over the past few decades.
The feedstock for global warming has also increased at an insanely rapid rate. Annual global emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, accounting for 90% of CO2, have increased from 25 billion tons in 2000 to 38 billion tons in 2025. That’s tons of emissions moving upwards by more than a 50% increase, remarkable!
Meanwhile, the annual growth rate of CO2 has rocketed upwards from 1.62 ppm in the atmosphere in 2000 to 3.6 ppm in 2025 or 225%, mirroring the insanity of the Roaring 2020s
Accordingly, climate change is on a rip-snorting tear never witnessed before in human history with off-the-charts data points that spell continuation of big trouble for winter Olympic events, unless fossil fuels are stopped and excessive CO2 withdrawn from the atmosphere on a scale that humbles the Marshall Plan, in part, humbled because CO2 atmospheric removal technology has proven to be anemic, at best. Moreover, is the world up to consideration of such an undertaking under the influence of United States focus on full blast expanding fossil fuels while killing green technology and decimating climate research as increasing numbers of copycat right-leaning countries and weak-kneed corporations tag along on America’s deep dive down into the rabbit hole.
Olympians have more direct contact with climate change than anybody as practice/training spots throughout the world become more difficult to find. Indeed, this is a more challenging matter than creating one Olympic village every four years. Based upon anecdotal evidence and testimonials, across the board, the athletes are perplexed by the failure of world governments to take on, to challenge, to at least mitigate, climate change’s imposing threat to ecosystems that support life, and, of course, skiing.
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