Photo/Illutration A snowmaking machine works to prepare for competitions at the National Alpine Skiing Center in the Yanqing district of Beijing on Jan. 14. (Takuya Isayama)

Shortly before the Turin Winter Olympics, which I covered 16 years ago, the manager of a ski event venue grew panicky as the start of the Games neared and there was still no snowfall.

"Come on, let us pray together" for snow, he begged us perplexed reporters while a snowmaking machine roared nearby.

The 2022 Winter Olympics kick off today in Beijing, where the lack of natural snow is a given due to the region's cold but dry climate.

Artificial snow, which saved the Turin Olympics, will form the ski slopes at the Beijing Winter Games. It comes as no surprise.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned in its evaluation report in 2015 that the venues "have minimal annual snowfall and the Games would rely completely on artificial snow."

Snow became an Olympic issue in 1921.

Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), the father of the modern Olympic Games, debated whether to break tradition with the ancient Greeks and hold the Games in winter.

He recalled in his memoir what his thoughts were when the matter was discussed at an IOC meeting. He concluded that even though "modern industry had managed to create artificial ice," he felt it would not be possible to "create and spread resistant and durable snow," nor go so far as to create a snow hill.

It was at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid that artificial snow was first used--something nobody could have imagined 100 years prior.

Since then, the IOC and Olympic host cities have been struggling with global warming, which continues to worsen every year, reducing snowfall and destabilizing the global climate.

European and American academics released a report last month on climate change and the Winter Olympics. According to former athletes who were surveyed, they became "more injury-prone" because of the hard texture of artificial snow and the slippery slopes it created.

Artificial snow not only guzzles water and electricity to produce, but it also affects athletes both physically and mentally.

A sustainable Winter Games cannot be realized with prayers and snowmaking machines.

I do not want to see future Olympic athletes skiing down an artificial slope.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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