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Valloni / News  / WINTER SPORTS AND SNOW
10 March 2025

WINTER SPORTS AND SNOW

 

With just one year to go to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, which take place in Italy from 6-22 February 2026, Andrew Parsons, the President of the International Paralympic Committee, has sounded a warning note about the future of the Winter Paralympic Games and, indeed, the Winter Olympic Games, due to climate change and the resulting lack of snow in various parts of the world.

In fact, the downhill events at the 2025 Para Alpine World Ski Championships, which took place in Maribor, Slovenia, from 4 – 11 February 2025, were cancelled due to poor snow conditions.

Regarding the Milan-Cortina Games, Parsons commented as follows:

“I don’t worry this will be the last but when it comes to change, yes, it is something we have been discussing with the IOC – how to be prepared for necessary changes that may have to be made around Winter Games.”

And added that:

“We are seeing the quality – and the amount of snow in many ski resorts around the world – is being affected, that’s a fact.

What we are seeing for the future of Winter Games is that we will have less hosts able to provide a good field of play, and we need to be prepared for that.”

In 2023, the IOC stated that only 10 countries will be able to host snow sports by 2040 because of the impact of climate change.

It may be noted that almost 100% of the snow at the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing was artificial, which has an effect on the environment and a cost, and, as a result of temperatures reaching above 20C and melting snow, competition schedules had to be changed.

In the case of Italy, it is reported that 90% of the country’s ski slopes rely on artificial snow.

Whatever happens, the organisers of the 2026 Winter Games, can be expected to meet any challenges posed by any lack of snow at the time!

We advise on environmental issues affecting summer and winter sports events and further information is available from our Managing Partner, Dr Lucien Valloni, and the Head of our Italian Desk, Avv Sara Botti, by emailing them at ‘valloni@valloni.ch’ and ‘botti@valloni.ch’ respectively.