A study carried out by the organization Climate Central shows “a significant increase” in Canada, and elsewhere around the world, in winter days where minimum temperatures are above freezing. An alarming situation which could jeopardize the practice of certain sports, including skiing, in all its forms.
Over the past decade, Canadian metropolises such as Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver have experienced at least five additional days per year with temperatures exceeding zero degrees Celsius due to human-caused global warming.
These are the conclusions of a group of independent scientists following an in-depth analysis of climate change covering the months of December to February from 2014 to 2023.
The situation is thus less favorable to the organization of winter sports activities and events outside, which could possibly jeopardize the presentation of World Cup stages in both freestyle and alpine skiing, so as not to name only these.
Very recently, the international federation was forced to draw a line under the Mont-Tremblant Alpine Ski World Cup due to the lack of snow in the Laurentides resort. Two giant slaloms were planned there on December 7 and 8.
A former athlete who participated in the Olympic Games on two occasions in freestyle skiing, now a coach with the Canadian team, Philippe Marquis is deeply worried by the state of the situation.
The results of Climate Central’s scientific study make him fear the worst for his sport: It’s a little scary to imagine what it’s going to look like in 2040, in 2060, in 2080
.
By his own admission, the outlook is bleak for freestyle skiing. Even I, who am generally legendaryly positive, have my doubts, I am a little more pessimistic for the future of skiing in general
he said.
The vice-world champion of parallel moguls in 2015, the year in which the maple leaf swept the podium, believes that his favorite sport could certainly
be wiped off the map if the status quo is maintained.
From there to say that it will happen in my lifetime, I don’t know, but I have difficulty seeing the sustainability of board sports further than in 50, 60, 70 years simply with the acceleration of climate change and by the general consumption of fossil fuels, without necessarily feeling the urgency to transition to slightly more renewable energies.
European countries are not spared, quite the contrary. It is no longer rare for an event to be postponed or removed from the calendar due to climatic upheavals. This was particularly the case last winter during the parallel slalom finals of the Snowboarding World Cup in Berchtesgaden, Germany.
Just this past weekend, the Freestyle Skiing World Cup moguls events at Alpe d’Huez, France, were canceled in their entirety due to lack of snow.
Open in full screen mode
Freestyle skier Philippe Marquis represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018.
Photo : -
Where there is the biggest change [par rapport à] when I was an athlete to what I see now as a coach is that we no longer have any competition, training site, event with natural snow: 100% of the places we go are on artificial snow installations
indicates Philippe Marquis.
It goes without saying that the quality of the snow is affected by this development, and therefore the safety of the athletes, says the instructor, now 35 years old.
It’s more icy, there is less depth, less thickness, he points out. There have been a lot more injuries in recent years. The demand for sport is perhaps greater too, but I think that there is a part of injuries and prevention that involves the quality of our facilities.
We no longer have the capacity to make a plan A. Now, we are always making plans A, B, C, D, E, simply due to lack of snow, with conditions that are not safe. . You have to be able to change places all the time. Previously, we tended to train more in Canada. We are forced to move abroad a little more than we did at the time with the change in our climate.
Among the solutions considered by the main interested party, one of the first things, which is the simplest for me, is to modify the calendar of events a little
.
We cannot afford to necessarily start in November when the conditions are extreme, knowing that we are forcing the [stations de ski] to produce artificial snow. Maybe it’s hasty, maybe we could push it back a little bit by a few weeks, maybe we could focus on a schedule in January, February, March and even April in some places in the world.