The Olympic flag flies during the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Photo / Getty Images
The Olympic flag flies during the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Photo / Getty Images
The Winter Olympics is a chance for skiers and skaters to shine but scientists warn the event could be under threat from climate change.
Just six of the previous Winter Olympics host cities will be cold enough to reliably host the games by the end of this century if global warming projections prove accurate, a team of international researchers have claimed.
And this year's host city, Sochi in Russia, is not among them.
A new study from the University of Waterloo, Canada and the Management Centre Innsbruck, Austria, found that even with conservative climate projections, only 11 of the previous 19 sites could host the Games in the coming decades.
'The cultural legacy of the world's celebration of winter sport is increasingly at risk,' said Professor Daniel Scott, a Canada Research Chair in global tourism and lead author of the study.
'Fewer and fewer traditional winter sports regions will be able to host a Olympic Winter Games in a warmer world.'
The researchers found that renowned sites, including Squaw Valley in the U.S. Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, Vancouver in Canada and Sochi in Russia would no longer have climates suitable to reliably host the games by the middle of the 21st century.
With additional warming projected for later decades of this century, as few as six former host locations would remain climatically suitable, they said.
'This report clearly points out the challenges that lie ahead for the Olympics because of climate change,' said Chris Steinkamp, executive director of Protect Our Winters, who was not involved with the study.
The skiing event at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Photo / Getty Images
'It's particularly powerful to see how past Olympic host cities could be impacted under a higher emission scenario, so hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call to the IOC and world leaders that major commitments to carbon reductions need to be made.'
The need for weather risk management strategies by Olympic organisers has intensified as the average February daytime temperature of Winter Games locations has steadily increased - from 0.4°C at events held between 1920 and 1959, to 3.1°C for the Winter Olympics during the 1960s to 1990s.
The average daytime temperature in February is predicted to rise to 7.8°C in the 21st century, ruining the prospect of snow in many cities.
Dr Robert Steiger of the Management Centre Innsbruck, said: 'Today it would be difficult to imagine successfully delivering the diverse games programme exclusively on natural ice and snow, as it was in the early decades of the Olympic Winter Games.
Weather risk management will become even more important in the coming decades with average February temperatures in past Winter Olympic host locations expected to warm an additional 1.9 to 2.1°C by mid-century and 2.7 to 4.4°C in late century.
The study found that poor weather is highlighted as one of the greatest challenges faced by Olympic organising committees.
Weather affects the ability to prepare for the games and can directly impact outdoor opening and closing ceremonies, fairness of outdoor competitions, spectator comfort, transportation and visibility and timing of television broadcasts.
The study also examined how technological advancements and strategies developed over several decades have been used to manage weather risk at the Winter Olympics.
Technology like track and jump refrigeration, snowmaking and high-resolution weather forecasting are now critical components of staging a successful Winter Games.
'Despite technological advances, there are limits to what current weather risk management strategies can cope with,' said Professor Scott.
'By the middle of this century, these limits will be surpassed in some former Winter Olympic host regions.'
The study reveals that for some cities and regions interested in hosting a future Winter Olympics, the time to bid for the games might be sooner than later.
