Winter Paralympics: Should the event be moved amid climate change challenges?

Athletes in T-shirts, fans applying sun cream – was this the Summer or Winter Paralympics?

If you listen to American Patrick Hallgren, who described the conditions at the Milan-Cortina Games as “tropical” and “like surfing,” you’ll think of the former.

Until you were told that he was a skater.

Since the 1992 Olympics, the Winter Paralympics have always been held in March, usually starting just two weeks after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics.

This meant that conditions during the Games were often more like spring than winter, with temperatures peaking at 26C four years ago in Beijing.

Although these temperatures were not felt in Cortina, they were warm, and until a significant amount of snow fell the night before the final day of competition on Sunday, snow was only seen on groomed competition trails.

The hot sun during several days of competition, mixed with some rain, caused the snow on the courts to turn soft and mushy, which in turn stuck to the athletes’ skis and snowboards.

Last weekend, the third official practice session for the Alpine downhill skiing events was canceled in an attempt to maintain skiing conditions.

While many athletes praised organizers’ efforts to keep the tracks in as good condition as possible, conditions on Friday during the men’s giant slalom were far from ideal, with visually impaired British skier Fred Warburton describing it as “a bathtub of Slush Puppie”.

His guide, James Hannan, said: “The snow surface was changing every gate, so we never knew how the ski would react.

“It was like survival of the fittest.”

This was certainly proven during the sitting event, which followed the visually impaired and standing races: 18 of the 37 athletes failed to reach the bottom of the course.

“Organizers need to consider scheduling with the clear changes in climate we are seeing,” Warburton said.

“Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games want to be one of the best showcases of skiing and allow the athletes to do their best.

“We need to look at the timeline and move it forward into the future. This is way beyond my pay grade, but it makes a lot of sense to me.”

Warburton’s words echoed those of retired U.S. Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy, who said this week in a TikTok video: “I don’t think the Paralympics should be happening now.”

Her comments came after the snowboarding track had to be modified after several accidents in training, partly due to its design but also because of the warm conditions.