Winter Olympics Commission Consider Winter

MILAN — The International Olympic Committee is considering moving future Winter Olympics from February into January because the planet is becoming too warm to reliably hold the Winter Olympics during winter.

This sentence is not satire.

Karl Stoss, head of the IOC’s Olympic Programme Working Group, told reporters February 4 that officials were examining whether to move the Games earlier to take advantage of colder temperatures and more dependable snow. Such a shift could also move the Winter Paralympics from March into February, when the stronger late-winter sun would be somewhat less enthusiastic about melting the playing surface.

The Winter Olympics have not opened in January since Innsbruck in 1964, 62 years ago. Since then, February has become the Games’ traditional home—a scheduling arrangement created during the quaint historical period when February could generally be counted upon to understand the assignment.

Climate change is making that assumption increasingly unreliable.

The IOC’s own research indicates that by 2040, only 10 countries may retain climatic conditions suitable for hosting the snow events of both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Natural snowfall is becoming less predictable in many mountain regions, while warmer temperatures also shrink the windows in which artificial snow can be manufactured efficiently.

The Olympics have already begun compensating technologically. The 2022 Beijing Winter Games became the first to rely on virtually 100% artificial snow, using more than 100 generators and 300 snow guns to create the required competition surfaces.

For the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, organizers again relied heavily on snowmaking systems. Reuters reported shortly before the Games that Alpine venues were increasingly dependent on manufactured snow as warming winters squeezed production into shorter periods of sub-zero temperatures.

Human civilization has therefore reached the stage of climate adaptation in which enormous machines are being deployed to manufacture winter so athletes can demonstrate mastery of winter sports.

Somewhere, a snowman is reading this and becoming a Marxist.

Artificial snow is not simply frozen water emerging from a sufficiently determined hose. Producing and maintaining it requires energy, infrastructure and substantial water resources—all of which become more difficult as the same warming conditions that reduce natural snowfall also strain mountain water supplies. Reuters noted that technology has improved dramatically, but physics continues to maintain an irritating veto over corporate optimism.

The IOC is consequently examining more than dates. Officials are reviewing the size and composition of future Games and even discussing whether traditionally summer-oriented sports could join the Winter program.

Cyclocross—a bicycle race conducted across steep hills, mud and obstacles—has been floated as one possibility. Running disciplines have also been mentioned. International Cycling Union president David Lappartient argued that adding such events could broaden participation and help the Games adapt to climate change. Traditional winter federations are understandably more cautious.

There is a certain elegance to solving the disappearance of winter sports by eventually adding sports that do not require winter.

At sufficient warming, the Winter Olympics could become the Olympics wearing a scarf.

None of this means skiing, snowboarding or other snow sports are about to disappear. Mountain climates vary enormously, artificial snow remains effective under suitable conditions, and host regions still experience major natural snowstorms. Indeed, northern Italy received substantial snowfall around the 2026 Games. The problem is reliability, not the instantaneous abolition of snow.

And reliability matters when governments and organizing committees spend billions preparing sporting infrastructure years in advance.

Changing the Games to January may buy colder conditions. Moving the Paralympics into February may likewise protect athletes from deteriorating March snow. Both are rational adaptations to conditions organizers cannot simply schedule away.

But the proposal also produces one of those little cultural milestones that deserves to be placed in a museum.

For generations, climate change was discussed primarily through charts predicting what would happen sometime in the future.

Now the future has reached the programming department.

The International Olympic Committee is looking at the calendar and asking whether winter still occurs early enough to keep calling the Winter Olympics the Winter Olympics.

At press time, January, like any time really, remained available. Winter is TBD.

Scientists recommend booking quickly.