All the skiing and snowboarding contests at these Olympics will rely exclusively on artificial snow, a first for the Games. But it could be a sign of things to come. MatthewStieb reports
The National Alpine Skiing Center finish line area on January 30, 2022. Photo: Getty Images China’s National Alpine Skiing Center, tucked inside a nature reserve amid the arid mountains west of Beijing mountain, is hardly a winter wonderland this time of year. The complex, which was completed in 2019 after four years of intense construction, will see highs above freezing when downhill events officially begin on Sunday.
The National Ski Jumping Center on January 31, 2022 in Beijing, China. Photo: Getty Images Artificial environments and fake snow aren’t new features of the Winter Olympics: Between 80 and 90 percent of the powder at the last two games came from machines, and it’s not like pristine halfpipes exist in nature. The ski-jump site may highlight the particularly absurdity of holding the games in Beijing in the first place, but it’s also probably a sign of things to come.
“What is really clear is that this is the new normal,” says Mario Molina, executive director at the pro-athlete advocacy group Protect Our Winters. While the idea of a permanent Winter Olympics site has been proposed in some icy alpine redoubt, he says that prospect is “missing the point. Trying to establish a permanent Olympics site is not a solution. There’s not going to be anywhere that’s going to be free of the impact of climate over the long haul.
In response, many ski destinations have instituted clean-energy goals for themselves, which they hope will power essential services like snowmaking and ski lifts. The Beijing Organizing Committee has also taken this approach, vowing that all venues for the 2022 Olympics will be powered entirely by renewable energy. But there may be a level of greenwashing at play here.
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