CORTINA - One hundred days before the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, it's too early for the weather forecast, but one thing is certain -- there will be artificial snow, much to the dismay of environmental activists.
The Milano-Cortina Games will be scattered across the mountains of northern Italy, with Cortina and Bormio hosting the alpine skiing, Anterselva the biathlon, Livigno the freestyle skiing and snowboarding, and Val di Fiemme the Nordic skiing.
Artificial snow will play a key role in the fourth Olympics Italy has hosted.
"No matter what, even if there is completely sufficient snowfall... there will also be some fake snow," said Jake W. Ward, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"These kind of high-level snow sport competitions at this point have started to move towards fake snow at least as a portion of the coverage," he said.
Doing so, he said, allows them to "specify the track conditions and make everything kind of exactly how they want for the races".
The international federations that govern skiing and biathlon both require organisers to have snow production equipment on hand, should it be needed.
The 2026 organising committee has said it plans to make 2.4 million cubic metres of artificial snow, which will require 948,000 cubic metres of water.
That includes more than half, or 580,000 cubic metres, for the Livigno Mottolino site alone, whose features will include a snowpark with a half-pipe as well as a Big Air ramp.
The artificial snow planned for next year will certainly use far less water than that required during the Beijing Winter Olympics, when 890,000 cubic metres was used for the alpine skiing site at Yanqing and 1.9 million cubic metres for all other snow sports, according to Olympic statistics.
The International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) says it takes one cubic metre of water to make around 2.5 cubic metres of snow.
In Italy, eight national environmental groups in 2023 denounced what they considered a lack of respect for the environment and local communities by the Milan-Cortina 2026 Foundation.
The president of the Italian Alpine Club, Antonio Montani, said the issue went far beyond next year's Olympics.
"The Games are the tip of the iceberg, they shine a light on the real problem, which is the hundreds of ski resorts that are only able to operate with artificial snow, with huge energy costs and funded by public subsidies, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to open."
The International Olympic Committee itself has recognised a problem. According to its estimates, only 10 countries would still have the snow necessary to host the Winter Olympics in 2040.