Olympic skiers competing in Cortina have voiced profound concern over the accelerating melt of the world’s glaciers, a stark reality made visible in the very region hosting the Games. Glaciers once prominent from the Italian town have dramatically receded, many now reduced to mere ice patches high in the Dolomites.
Lindsey Vonn, who began skiing on Austrian glaciers at age nine, highlighted the dramatic change. "Most of the glaciers that I used to ski on are pretty much gone," the 41-year-old stated on 3 February. Mikaela Shiffrin echoed this sentiment, explaining that snow sports athletes "get a real front-row view" of the monumental changes occurring on the highest, coldest peaks.
Italian glaciologist Antonella Senese confirmed the alarming trend, revealing that Italy has lost over 200 square kilometres of glacier area since the late 1950s. "We are observing a continuous and uninterrupted decrease in glacier area and volume. In the last one to two decades, this reduction has clearly accelerated," said Senese, an associate professor at the University of Milan.
The Marmolada glacier, 50 kilometres from Cortina, tragically saw an apartment building-sized chunk detach in July 2022, causing an avalanche that killed 11 hikers. The University of Padua reported in 2023 that the glacier had halved in size over 25 years. Projections from the Goodbye Glaciers Project suggest it could be mostly gone by 2034 if global warming reaches 2.7°C.
Patrick Schmitt, a doctoral student at the University of Innsbruck, emphasised: "The choices we make in this decade will decide how much ice remains in the Dolomites, across the Alps, and around the world." Globally, over 7 trillion tons of ice have been lost since 2000, with significant implications for winter sports and the number of viable Winter Olympic host cities projected to shrink substantially.
Other Olympic athletes share these concerns. Israel’s Noa Szollos noted that the state of local glaciers reflects a global issue, hoping "we can do something about it." Team USA’s River Radamus said: "It’s always present in our mind that we’re on a dangerous trend unless we do something right."
