13 February, 2026

As the Winter Olympics and Paralympics kick off in the mountains of Italy, a quiet tension hangs in the air. Not from competition, but from the rapidly shifting climate beneath it. With winter conditions becoming increasingly unreliable, the Games now face a very different future.

Across winter sports venues, warming winters are reshaping the landscape. In some host cities, February temperatures have risen by nearly 3°C since the mid‑20th century, significantly shortening the snowy season. As natural snowfall becomes less dependable, organisers now rely on millions of cubic metres of manufactured snow to create safe racing surfaces. Yet even artificial snow has limits: it requires cold, stable conditions that are becoming rarer, and uses significant amounts of water and energy inputs that are harder to justify in a warming, resource‑stressed climate. These constraints also raise safety concerns as courses grow icier, thinner, or even rain‑soaked.

The shifting conditions have prompted intense debate about the future format of the Winter Olympics. Some within the sporting world are exploring the idea of expanding the programme to include events not traditionally tied to snow or ice. Others argue for a rotational model, where a small number of climate‑reliable regions host the Games repeatedly. With the Paralympics traditionally held later in the year, when warming conditions are even more acute, proposals now include shifting the event earlier, merging programmes, or distributing competitions across multiple sites, changes that may carry significant implications for long‑term disability inclusion in winter sport.

But beyond logistics, the Winter Olympics are emerging as a powerful storytelling device: a global stage where the impacts of warming winters become impossible to ignore. Athletes describe racing on narrow ribbons of snow surrounded by green hillsides; fans watch competitions held entirely on machine‑made surfaces. The contrast is stark.

In this sense, the Games offer more than medals. They make visible what is at stake for winter itself, while opening the door for the Olympics and Paralympics to become a showcase for more sustainable approaches to global sporting events.

By Hillevi Fock