Winter Olympics Confront Climate Reality as Snow Recedes
As skimo competitors navigate the challenging course during the women's sprint event in Bormio, a far greater challenge looms over winter sports globally. By the century's end, climate projections indicate only eight of the twenty-one cities that have previously hosted the Winter Olympics will maintain sufficiently cold conditions to reliably stage the Games. This stark reality forces urgent conversations about sustainability and environmental responsibility within the Olympic movement.
The Growing Carbon Footprint of Winter Sports
Organizers of the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics already confront significant environmental challenges, including artificial snow production, transportation between remote venues, and extensive new infrastructure development. These issues will likely become increasingly common at future Winter Games as climate patterns shift. A recent New Weather Institute report revealed that sponsorship deals with fossil fuel giant Eni, automaker Stellantis, and ITA Airways could increase the 2026 Games' carbon footprint by an alarming forty percent.
This additional carbon output equates to melting approximately 3.2 square kilometers of snow cover and twenty million tonnes of glacier ice. International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry acknowledged these concerns, stating the governing body is "having conversations in order to be better" regarding climate change approaches. However, researchers question whether rhetoric matches reality in Olympic sustainability claims.
Measuring Sustainability: A Challenge of Transparency
Martin Müller, professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Lausanne, highlights the difficulty in evaluating Olympic sustainability. "Just constructing the baseline was difficult" for research examining Games sustainability between 1992 and 2020, Müller explains. "Even for newer events, some very basic data is hard to find, which tells us about the need to improve transparency for these multi-billion-dollar undertakings."
The IOC launched the Olympic Games Impact initiative in 2000, establishing 126 economic, environmental, and sociocultural indicators for host cities. However, this program was abandoned in 2017 after cities complained about its rigorous requirements. This departure means organizers can now make whatever sustainability claims they choose without standardized verification.
Financial Realities and Environmental Costs
Müller's research team defines a sustainable sports event as one that "minimizes its ecological impact and promotes social wellbeing by ensuring its economic viability and implementing accountable governance in a long-term perspective." Yet financial scrutiny reveals troubling patterns. Every Olympic Games since 1960 has exceeded cost forecasts by an average of 159 percent, with Winter Games averaging 132 percent over budget.
Milano Cortina 2026 spending has already surpassed $1.7 billion, exceeding original estimates by approximately $400 million, with an additional $3.5 billion in public infrastructure investment. Researchers Alexander Budzier and Bent Flyvbjerg from Oxford University suggest host cities maintain an "optimism bias" by assuming unrealistically low future inflation rates.
The environmental impact extends beyond budgets. An estimated 410,000 of the 930,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by Milano Cortina 2026 will originate from spectator travel alone. Müller notes that the IOC could prioritize environmental considerations "more easily than other sectors" since the organization wouldn't need to fundamentally alter its business model, which generates over ninety percent of revenue from broadcasting and sponsorship rights.
Proposed Solutions for Sustainable Winter Games
Researchers propose several innovative approaches to reduce the Winter Olympics' environmental footprint. A geographical contingency scale for ticket allocation could make long-distance travel more expensive while maintaining accessibility for local spectators. Since most viewers experience the Games through screens rather than in person, this approach could significantly reduce travel-related emissions without substantially affecting revenue.
Another suggestion involves spreading each Winter Olympics across multiple locations to minimize long-distance travel to a single destination. This distributed model would also encourage using existing venues rather than constructing new infrastructure. Prospective host cities have already expressed interest in reducing Olympic scale to improve feasibility.
Müller warns that without substantial changes, the Winter Olympics risk "entering a period of rapid decline." Potential consequences include cities withdrawing from bidding processes due to excessive costs, community resistance to overtourism, and growing public skepticism about Olympic benefits. "In the end, this leads us back to rethinking what these events are about," Müller reflects, "the sports and athletes at their center."
As favorable conditions for elite winter sports become increasingly rare, the Olympic movement faces a critical juncture. The coming years will determine whether sustainability becomes integrated into Olympic planning or remains merely aspirational rhetoric as the snow continues to retreat from traditional winter sports venues worldwide.
