In the inaugural speech to launch the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, at the 139th session of the International Olympic Committee, president Thomas Bach could not help but put a little tackle on his FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino and his proposed World Cup in Qatar. If the two main giants of world sports seem to disagree on the way to manage their respective calendars, they agree on one point: organizing their competitions in politically, socially and environmentally questionable countries. A soccer World Cup in Qatar under forty degrees in air-conditioned stadiums on one side, Olympics in a region of China where winters are dry and where it hardly snows on the other.
On the two main sites where the outdoor events will take place, in Zhangjiakou and Yanking, there is indeed talk of 2 to 3 centimeters of snow per month at most. Consequently, the snow on which the athletes will realize their feats will be 100 % artificial, a first in the history of the Olympic Games. But it turns out that using fake snow is not without consequences on energy consumption and, ultimately, on the environment. However, the IOC assures us that these Beijing Games will be "the greenest in history". A speech of rigor at a time when global warming threatens our planet (and our species) in the short, even very short term. And this is where the issue resides, having an International Olympics Committee claiming about the legitimacy of the ecological (and positive) impact of its competitions, while they are clearly questionable at minimum.
To back up its promises, this one released a 130 pages sustainability report in which organizers boast of "reducing and offsetting carbon emissions, protecting local ecosystems and providing long-term benefits to local communities and economies." By highlighting the construction of huge fields of wind turbines and solar panels or the use of vehicles transporting athletes, journalists and volunteers running on electricity or hydrogen, China assures that the power of the Games will be only of renewable origin. So much for the official version for the general public. However, this report has been questioned by climate experts, such as Carmen De Jong, where she believes that although several improvements have been made, these olympics will be the most polluting ones in history.
On the other hand, do the athletes think differently of the snow in canon (where electricity is required to transform water into snow) and the choice of Beijing as host city? As is often the case, they are torn between their sincere ecological conscience and their attachment to the Winter Games. Martin Fourcade, biathlete and a five-time Olympic champion, believes that they should not be the only ones being stigmatized regarding the impacts of the games, while other equipment such as a hot tub, where he emphasizes on the energy needed for boiling water for pools. However, he believes that we should do better.
We can assume that, unfortunately, these committees such as FIFA and IOC will not stop here, and in the long run, other events could defy all environmental regulations, and organize future winter olympics in cities such as Doha for example, since in recent reports, finding a city with enough snow and ice will be hard to host winter games. We can ask ourselves, how, as viewers, we can prevent this from happening.
Hamza Lahmassi
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