FOSSIL FUEL VS. WINTER SPORT

I grew up in Greenland skiing and shooting, and competed for Denmark in biathlon at the Milano Cortina Olympics. But the sport I love is becoming harder to recognize as a winter sport at all. At the world championships in Czechia in 2024, I skied on snow that was reduced to a narrow artificial strip, surrounded by grass and mud. Temperatures neared a balmy 50°F in the middle of February.

- UKALEQ SLETTEMARK

In places, I found that the snow was so thin that asphalt broke through underneath my skis. On what was supposed to be a training day on the snow, we were told we were not allowed to ski at all. The organizing committee was struggling to preserve what little snow was left; too much skiing would only speed up the melting.

Winter sports are already being reshaped by climate change, and the institutions that govern them must decide how they will respond. One place to start is with sponsorship. Currently, YX, a Norwegian petrol-station chain, sponsors the Norwegian Biathlon Federation. Var Energi sponsors the Norwegian alpine national team. And one of the sponsors of the Milano Cortina Olympics was ENI, an Italian oil and gas company.

Imagine the impact if the International Olympic Committee and national sport federations drew a clear line and banned fossil-fuel sponsorships altogether.