The Winter Olympics are officially here and I was very happy watching some of the games yesterday. Especially as winter is my favorite season and I love when sports are played in a colder environment. But something that I did not know is that a majority of the snow that Olympians will be performing on is all artificial. Yep you heard that right as 100% of the snow is actually homemade. Now when I first heard about the Olympics having artificial snow I had to get an understanding of Why they would do this and it is quite simple. These events all will be performed in Zhangjiakou, China and according to Google Maps it is around 193.9 kilometers or 120.5 miles away from Beijing, China. In the city of Zhangjiakou it is a cold climate but a big issue is that it is also a very dry one where it barley snows. So the issue now is that the Olympics are going to take place in a location where it is doesn’t have a lot of snow and is a very dry solution. The Olympics had no choice and needed artificial snow in order to perform the Olympics this year as planned. So It make sense why they do this but I have two big problems with regarding using artificial snow for the Winter Olympics.
Well first is obvious as there are environmental issues that could result in this move. Now I am not a science guy but changing an environment from one thing to another is a big concern. Think of how the soil and other parts of the environment in Zhangjiakou will take to the artificial snow. Especially as it is a dry area with snow and all of a sudden you add a bunch of water and any other chemicals added to create this snow will not be beneficial but create damage to the environment.
Second is that Athletes are more likely to get injured performing on artificial snow than natural snow. I did a little research ad apparently artificial snow is a lot more icier and harder than normal snow. Not only that but performing sports on artificial snow increases the speed. It is very concerning as falling on the snow will be a harder impact and the faster an athlete goes could lead to a quicker injury Especially wit skiers and snowboarders. This problem has already been showcased with olympian Rina Yoshika injury. Rina Yoshika is a snowboarder who is competing for Japan in the 2022 Olympics. What happened was that she was practicing for the competition and she fell hard on the artificial snow resulting in her spinal injury. This sucks especially as a fan you never want to hear an athlete suffer a brutal injury like this. My thoughts and prayers are with Mrs. Yoshika. I hope she has a speedy recovery from her injuries.
The Artificial Snow is absolutely something to look at during the 2022 Winter Olympics and can produce a lot of problems to the environment and athletes injuries. Hopefully there is not a lot of injuries that come as a result of the artificial snow.
Hello my name is Nicholas and I am a writer for Moore Than Sports. I am a graduate from Farmingdale State College. Currently I am enrolled at Canisius College going for my Masters Degree in Sports Administration. My favorite sports teams are the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, Charlotte Hornets, Buffalo Sabers, New York Rangers, and New York Yankees. I enjoy watching sports, analyzing transactions, scouting football players, and of course writing sports articles.
Leave a Reply