What Artificial Snow Means for the Future of the Winter Olympics

One-hundred percent of the snow that athletes at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are competing on is artificial—pumped out by high-powered snow machines, rather than produced by Mother Nature.

The lack of natural snow is a first for the Winter Games—though it’s hardly an anomaly. Artificial snow was first used at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, but it has been growing in prevalence in the most recent Games. About 80% of the snow used in Sochi, Russia in 2014 was artificial, and that number went as high as 98% for the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s decision to select a city that must rely on artificial snow, raises questions about how sustainable the Winter Olympics are. Beijing has little to no natural snowfall in the winter, and yet it will stage 109 winter sporting events. To transform terrains, organizers will use almost 300 fan-powered snow guns and 83 lance-style snow guns from Italian firm TechnoAlpin.

Read more about fake snow at the 2022 Winter Olympics: https://ti.me/3LpxxQf
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Дата на публикация: 28 ноември, 2023
Категория: Новини
Ключови думи: What The for of winter Snow Future Olympics Means Artificial