This is part two of a two-part series examining how climate change threatens the future of winter sports. You can read part one here.
In the seven years since Marion Teno set up her office on the slopes, she's seen the best and worst of working outdoors.
She saw a beautiful winter and amazing snow on which a freestyle skier performs difficult jumps and tricks in the discipline of acrobatics.
But she also had a front row seat to how climate change has impacted her sport and the world around her. As the planet gets warmer, winter sports such as skiing are particularly vulnerable.
Teno has been to World Cup events where the entire mountain was covered in green grass, except for the artificial snow that was used to create the competition area. — a dramatic contrast that stuck with her.
“It doesn't feel right to be there,” Teno told CBC Sports. “I feel like I’m not welcome in this environment because it’s kind of fake.”
Beyond her appearance, the former gymnast experienced how climate change could affect her performance. Melting snow can affect a skier's takeoff and speed.
As she takes off into the air, each jump requires the most precise measurements and micro-adjustments, so Teno knows exactly what to do in the air and where she will land.
“Working with dry ice makes the jump stable, but it also makes the jump slippery and the rest sticky,” she said. “It's a really big thing to get used to when it's warmer outside. The speed changes more dramatically because you'll be sticky until it thickens, and then once it's compacted it'll move really fast. It's a little more dangerous in the sense that it's not as consistent.”
A 2024 study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee found that the number of good-weather venues for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics was rapidly declining. It found that only half of the 21 cities that previously hosted the Olympics will be ready to host them by the 2050s due to climate change.
It's an existential threat, but it's not far off. Athletes who rely on the natural environment, like Teno, are now seeing the effects of climate change and are speaking out about it.
For them, this is about more than preserving the sport. This is about protecting our country's unique and special places.
“I depend on the snowpack for my job,” Teno said. “But also, we have the opportunity to see what’s happening in the mountains, and it’s my responsibility to tell the world about it.”
For Teno, this advocacy began after she returned from the Beijing Olympics with a bronze medal. It was this striking contrast of green and white that spurred her to action. The more she learned, the more she understood and the more she felt obliged to do.
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She has set herself the goal of making her route to the Olympic Games next February carbon neutral. To do this, she's partnering with an engineering consulting firm to help quantify her carbon footprint as an athlete.
Last month, she was one of 77 Canadian athletes from the climate advocacy group Protect Our Winters to sign a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for swift action on climate change.
This is a global problem that is the subject of negotiations among world leaders at the ongoing UN climate conference COP30.
But for Teno and the other athletes who signed the letter to the prime minister, the way forward begins with making climate a top priority.
“The message from our athletes is simple,” Protect Our Winters said in a statement.
“As Canada addresses housing affordability, the economy and health care, climate change must remain a priority, including strengthening our commitment to meeting Canada's climate goals. Our athletes are the ones who see the stakes firsthand, and that's what motivates them to champion the places and experiences we love.”
Changing Winter Olympics Venues
The largest sporting organization on the planet, the International Olympic Committee, has pledged to cut its direct and indirect emissions by 50 percent by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement.
With the IOC reluctant to build new venues that sit empty for years after the Games, organizers are being encouraged to use existing buildings or build temporary facilities. At the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, 95 percent of the venues were existing or temporary.
But athletes around the world are concerned about whether the IOC has done enough to address climate change and is advocating bold action to combat climate change.
One of the IOC presidential candidates, Johan Elias, has made sustainable development a central element of his program.
Elias, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), has proposed staggering the Winter Olympics between a limited number of permanent venues.
It's a scenario that could eventually become necessary as fewer countries are able to host the Winter Games, but Elias would like to see the process speed up.
What does the future of skiing and snowboarding look like in the face of a changing climate, uncertainty and economic considerations? Our Carissa Donkin seeks answers from FIS President Johan Elias.
“It’s very important to preserve what we have,” Elias said in an interview last month. “It's not just about skiing. It's about everything we do. There's only one planet.”
Eliasz, who lost the presidential election to Kirsty Coventry, believes the idea of rotating the Winter Games through permanent venues is popular within the IOC. The problem, he says, is how to reward these games. Should there be voting or rotation of sets?
“It's something that [being] “I looked,” Eliash said.
Coventry's platform talked about supporting sustainable development, but did not give details of how it would do this.
Still, Elias said he has a feeling climate is a priority for the new president, who officially took over the top job in June.
“We've had conversations about it,” he said. “She's definitely taking this very seriously. I'm confident she'll not only prioritize it, but make a difference.”
The more than 400 Olympians who signed a letter to all IOC presidential candidates earlier this year need more decisive action, and time will tell whether the new IOC leadership can achieve this.
The letter called for “strengthening the IOC's existing commitments to reduce carbon emissions” and setting standards for polluting sponsors. None of them appeared on the Coventry platform.
Athletes who need urgency
Olympic sprint kayaking champion Adam van Coeverden was one of the athletes who signed an open letter to IOC presidential candidates back in March.
In a press release about the letter, van Coeverden called for “bold leadership that will protect both the future of the Games and the well-being of communities around the world.”
Back in Canada, van Coeverden is the country's minister of sport, meaning he has the ability to bring athletes' climate concerns directly to the prime minister. This includes concerns raised by Canadian athletes in a letter to Carney last month.
He pointed to “increased industrial carbon prices and clear methane regulations,” both of which were part of the last budget, as measures aimed at addressing the two concerns he said he heard most often from environmental groups. The Liberal government scrapped the consumer carbon pricing system earlier this year.
“Climate change is having an impact on sports and we need to make sure we're tackling climate change because it's all about our economy, our health and our communities,” he told CBC Sports. “This is not a distant threat. It's right here.”
But Teno believes climate change has taken a back seat in political discussions, whether within the IOC or during the last federal election in Canada.
It's more urgent for her.
“I’ve heard this phrase a lot: environmental action is the issue when everything else is going well,” she said. “But I don’t think it should be that way, and I think that’s partly what’s happening now.”
