Why Winter Games may shift indoors

The International Olympic Committee in its Mumbai session spoke about the damage climate change can do to the Winter Games

- Rutvick Mehta

Summing up the threat of climate change to the Olympics at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Mumbai, Karl Stoss, chairman of IOC's Future Host Commission for the Winter Games, told the gathered members of the apex body: "Don't look away any longer."

Their studies, coming on the back of the Copernicus Climate Change Service's data that showed June, July, August and September in 2023 were the hottest globally on record, appear to suggest so.

The impact of climate change on Winter Olympics is more alarming and imminent, but the Summer Games - India has shown interest to host in 2036 - are not entirely immune to it either.

Sensing the need to "address this dramatic impact of climate change", as IOC president Thomas Bach put it, the IOC Future Host Commission conducted a study regarding the hosting of Winter Olympics. A couple of criteria were outlined. One, to identify countries with the most existing venues, and two, if they would be climate reliable until at least the middle of the century. Climate reliable means "projected average temperatures should be below zero degrees Celsius during the period of the Games", said Stoss.

The study found that there are 15 countries across three continents that have at least 80% of the required venues. Of them, by 2040, two will not have the climate reliability to host the Winter Olympics in February and five will not for the Winter Paralympics in March.

IOC thus stares at the pool of potential hosts being reduced to 10, with that number likely to fall further by the middle of the century, the study noted.