The 'dark side' of artificial snow in the Beijing Winter Olympics

Making snow 'consumes' a lot of energy and water. Meanwhile, this year's Beijing Winter Olympics need 1.2 million cubic meters of snow to cover the competition area.

CNN (USA) reported that climate change has forced the Winter Olympics to depend almost 100% on artificial snow. This is a trend for winter sports venues around the world.

Pictured last January is a snow machine in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, where the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing took place.

According to a recent study, by the end of this century, only one in 21 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics in the past 50 years still has a climate suitable for winter sports.

As the Earth warms and the weather becomes increasingly erratic, natural snow becomes less reliable for winter sports. Therefore, artificial snow has 'on the throne'.

However, artificial snow is resource-intensive, requiring large amounts of energy and water to be produced in increasingly warmer climates. Athletes also share that winter sports become less safe in the presence of artificial snow.

The average annual snowfall in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, where some competitions take place, is only about 20cm. From here, the snow generators appear.

Snow machines at the competition in Zhangjiakou city in November 2021.

TechnoAlpin (Italy) has been tasked with producing the necessary amount of snow for outdoor winter sports events in Beijing within the framework of the Olympics.

TechnoAlpin's regional manager Michael Mayr said: 'We are proud to be the only company providing snow generation systems for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

But there is an important point that makes snow creation in some parts of Beijing difficult, and that is the temperature is not 'forced' to freeze the water. Therefore, Mr. Michael Mayr said: "Clearly we need more energy when the weather is warmer."

Traditionally, snowmaking has relied heavily on snow guns and temperatures at or below freezing. To adapt to warmer temperatures and lower altitudes, a different approach is required. TechnoAlpin announced that it has shipped a full range of snow guns, fan-powered snow generators and cooling towers to Beijing since 2018.

Making snow 'consumes' a lot of energy and water. Meanwhile, this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing need 1.2 million cubic meters of snow to cover the 800,000 square meter competition area. Therefore, the demand for water is enormous. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) estimates that the amount of water needed to make snow at the Olympics is equivalent to drinking water for nearly 100 million people a day.

Meanwhile, athletes are also concerned about competing on artificial snow. French athlete who won bronze at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Clement Parisse shared that artificial snow is often slippery and icy, adding to the challenge.