The impacts of climate change hang heavily over the viability of Australia's future Winter Olympics chances, and raise urgent questions about how we celebrate Winter sports culture and achievement.
As Australia has just sizzled through its hottest heatwave since Black Saturday in 2009, the world turns its attention to the Winter Olympics held in Milan-Cortina, Italy, starting this week (February 6th).
The Australian Olympic committee has announced a 53-strong Australian Olympic team, one of the biggest in history, with several contenders leading international rankings in their respective sports.
Professional freestyle skier, Olympic Commentator and member of the POW Athlete Alliance, Miff Rennie notes this isn't just a problem for the future generation of Olympic athletes, but one impacting Australia's current batch of Winter Olympians. "There's been training grounds on glaciers that we now don't go to because that's just pointless," Rennie says.
"The weather is just too unpredictable, in the sense that we don't know if there's going to be enough snow anymore to build parks and the training facilities."
The Winter Olympics have become increasingly reliant on snowmaking to be viable, with the Beijing Winter Olympics almost exclusively requiring artificial snow to support a successful games. This year has been no exception, with more than half a million cubic metres of snow being produced in just one Olympic venue, the ski resort of Livigno, alone. Artificial snowmaking across the Olympics' northern Italian venues began in earnest early this month, and recent research shows potential Olympic locations will become more and more limited if the globe continues on our current high emitting path.
In fact, leading researchers say more than half of current winter venues will become unviable as Olympic locations over the next two decades.
Dr Andrew Watkins, POW Science Alliance Member, Adjunct Professor at Monash University and Coordinating Lead Author on Australia's first National Climate Risk assessment also notes that changes to winters in Australia will affect our future Olympians.
"As global temperatures have increased, Australia's snow cover, snow depth and snow season have all declined, especially at our lower mountains. This is a direct result of burning fossil fuels. By 2050, snow depths even on the higher mountains could be at least 30% less, and the season will be at least three weeks shorter," Dr Watkins says.
"If we don't act, my kids will struggle to take their kids skiing. The next generation of Olympians need winters too."
While the Winter Olympics, generally held in January or February, are on thin ice, the Paralympics, generally held in March, are at an even bigger risk of poor winter seasons.
Research by the University of Waterloo and University of Innsbruck shows they may lose almost 70% of location options by 2050 on our current emissions path.
Michael Milton, Paralympic Alpine skier and Australia's most decorated Winter Paralympian acknowledges the challenges of the Paralympics falling in the spring time.
"There's definitely been some snow concerns around the Dolomites and the Cortina area. Being in March, the Paralympics can get hit with spring conditions rather than peak snowpack, so it's a potential issue for us."
He also puts forward a sentiment shared by many in the ski community - a hope for an alpine future that is not plagued by concern over what it might look like, especially for future generations.
"As somebody who's taught my kids to ski, who has a lifelong passion for the sport, and who has seen those changes, I look towards the future with concerns about what might happen to my sport, and to my kids."
Off the back of this sentiment of concern in our Winter community, Protect Our Winters Australia has started a campaign - Protect Our Alpine Future - getting those connected to the Alps to start imagining what they want their alpine future to look like.
Miff Rennie wants a future that is snowy and resilient, able to nurture the next generation of Olympians.
"I want communities where locals can afford to live, where businesses can thrive between seasons, and where we use our clean energy instead of burning up what's left. Most of all, I want future generations to feel the magic that we grew up with. The long snow days, the longer seasons, the healthy snowpacks, and a thriving ski community where our winters are not just beautiful, but resilient."
Lily O'Neill, Board Director at POW Australia, Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures and Bright local, puts forward that what needs to be done to take back our alpine future and Winter Olympics reliability is simple.
"The Australian Alps, its communities, animals, plants and ski resorts are in extreme danger from our warming climate. Australia does not currently have a climate change plan that aligns with what science says is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. We need a national alpine adaptation strategy, a just fossil fuel transition plan that includes dealing with our exports, and we need our politicians to act with the dedication, speed and impact of our winter athletes."
