Winter sports must take a clear stand on climate action, starting with the companies we choose as sponsors.
I am a biathlete. I grew up in Greenland skiing and shooting, and I will compete for Denmark in biathlon at the Milano Cortina Olympics. But the sport I love is becoming harder to recognize as a winter sport at all.
At the Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czechia in 2024, I skied on snow that was reduced to a narrow artificial strip, surrounded by grass and mud. Temperatures neared a balmy 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the middle of February. In places, I found that the snow was so thin that asphalt broke through underneath my skis.
On what was supposed to be a training day on the snow, we were told we were not allowed to ski at all. The organizing committee was struggling to preserve what little snow was left; too much skiing would only speed up the melting.
Winter sports are already being reshaped by climate change, and the institutions that govern them must decide how they will respond. One place to start is with sponsorship.
Currently, YX, a Norwegian petrol station chain, sponsors the Norwegian Biathlon Federation. Vår Energi sponsors the Norwegian alpine national team. And one of the sponsors of the Milano Cortina Olympics is ENI, an Italian oil and gas company.
Imagine the impact if the International Olympic Committee and national sport federations drew a clear line and banned fossil fuel sponsorships altogether. There is a painful irony in winter sports giving oil and gas companies a platform to build public credibility, while the very conditions required for our sport are quite literally melting away.
Sponsoring winter sports is a powerful way to gain public credibility. Millions of people watch the Olympic Games, and every logo shown on screen sends a message about what aligns with Olympic values, and what the Olympic movement chooses to endorse.
I feel extremely privileged to still be able to train and compete on snow,…
