This year's Winter Olympics taking place in Beijing, China, will mark the first time athletes compete in snow that is almost entirely fake snow.
"The 2022 Beijing Olympics will make history as the first Winter Olympics on snow that is almost 100% artificial snow," the report said.
Olympic organizers use dozens of snow generators and hundreds of snow blowers to produce 1.2 million cubic meters of snow. The report says that as the climate crisis continues, large-scale artificial snow like this will likely become the norm.
However, producing fake snow has costly and environmentally unfriendly consequences. Even if powered by renewable energy, a large amount of high-cost energy is still needed. This technology can also drain water resources significantly.
"Artificial snow is colder, therefore faster and more dangerous. False snow is also more painful if we fall off the track and hit a soft mound of snow, but there is hard rocky and muddy ground behind it," says Estonian biathlete Johanna Taliharm quoted from Quartz.
US cross-country coach Chris Grover said landing and submerging in artificial snow can feel like falling on concrete. The reason is, artificial snow is not really snow, but more like solid mud made of water droplets that are broken up by nozzles and frozen.
Most ski and snowboarding events at the Beijing Olympics will take place in Zhangjiakou, about 110 miles northwest of Beijing. One of these sports will feature freestyle, cross-country, ski jumping and biathlon.
Sledding, luge and Alpine skiing will be held in Yanqing, a mountainous area about 45 miles from downtown Beijing, where the Olympic athletes' home is located. In addition, skating and several additional snow sports are held at the Capital Indoor Stadium in central Beijing.
The 2026 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Milan. The ideal conditions for making artificial snow are around -6 degrees Celsius, which represents a combination of the actual temperature and the amount of moisture in the air. However, the temperature in Milan rarely drops that low. It is possible that the Olympics will also follow in China's footsteps using fully artificial snow.
Please note that the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing on February 4, and the games will close on February 20.