The Canadian freestyle ski driver Philippe Marquis always felt the most at home in the mountains, his playground with a postcard with snow-covered beauty.
But the two -time Olympian has observed the place that he changes the most, while he changes the most in sports on sport, all because of a warming climate. He trained on Horstman Glacier in Whistler less than a decade ago in the summer months. No longer. The glacier was closed last year due to a lack of snow for summer skiing and snowboarding.
Marquis is a trainer with freestyle Skiing Canada’s Nextgen program in Moguls and said that the athletes had to rely on artificially made snow, which is harder and iciger as a natural powder and can deal hard with the bodies of the athletes. Term plans were thrown into a blender by weather -related changes, and this said Marquis that the cost of the competition had increased.
“Seeing the changes around the world is something that I am very afraid of, and it influences me and the sport that I love very much,” said Marquis, the chairman of the Athlete Commission of the Canadian Olympic Committee, in an interview with CBC Sports.
He is one of more than 400 athletes around the world who have signed a letter to the candidates who are about the new President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and demand that the climate are priority to number one.
IOC members from all over the world will gather for the IOC meeting in Greece next week, where you will choose a new president of seven candidates. In January, the candidates dealt privately with the members at an event in Switzerland in Switzerland, with only 15 minutes to determine their view.
Some have emphasized the climate more than others in their public platforms: Johan Eliasch, President of the International Ski and Snowboardveration, described climate change as a “existential threat” for the Olympic Winter Games and has rotated these games between constant events as a more sustainable option.
In the meantime, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, one of the front runners, refers to the challenge of climate change in his platform and promises to “embed ambitious environmental goals in all aspects of the games and to rely on new standards for sustainability and green innovations in sports”, but not to these goals or their achievement of sports. Coe said that climate change could ultimately force the Summer Calendar Olympics into the winter calendar.
The winner will replace Thomas Bach, who has ruled the world’s largest sports organization since 2013 and will officially take over in June.
This person is commissioned to lead the Olympic Games through a post-pandemic world, which navigates challenges from war and political instability to the integrity of sport and athlete security.
You will also have the task of keeping the games from a younger generation relevant, consuming the media in a completely different way than their parents and grandparents.
“(We need) a guide who understands and embodies the positive values of sport stands for integrity, good government and sustainability, financially and ecological, while it is progressing a safe and integrative sporting environment worldwide”, whereby the Canadian Olympic Committee President Tricia Smith, which is entitled to vote in the election, is justified in the election of a written statement of CBC sports is.
“No more distant threat”
But no challenge may be larger than a warming planet and the associated extreme weather, argue the athletes who have signed the letter to IOC candidates. Extreme heat makes it difficult to plan the summer games, while fewer places can organize the winter games, because snow and melting ice are lacking.
“This is no longer a distant threat, but a current and growing damage to the sports we love, and for the countries from which our Olympic family consists,” says the letter.
The athletes are calling for a meeting with the new president and for this person to strengthen the IOC’s obligations for “fast carbon emissions”. They also ask the IOC to “set a standard” when it comes to “highly authorized sponsorship”.
The letter contains signatures of more than 125 Olympic flags and more than 20 Canadians.
These include athletes who won medals in Paris last year, such as Paddler Katie Vincent, volleyball player Melissa Humana-Paredes, tennis player Gabriela Dabrowski and weightlifter Maude Charron, who was one of the Canadian flag wearers at the opening ceremonies in Paris 2024.
About a month ago, Vincent went to a training camp outside of San Diego. Your group was forced to train a different place for a few days than an algae blossom closed the lake that you should use.
“They believe that due to the chemicals that entered the soil, because of the struggles of the (Los Angeles) fires that broke through the ground and infected, it drove through the floor,” said Vincent, who became an Olympic champion in the sprint in Paris last summer.
The three -time Olympic medalist also experienced heating temperatures throughout her career, perhaps the most remarkable during the extreme heat of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. There were some of the hottest weather athletes, said Vincent.
Focus on forest fire risk for LA 2028
The IOC has sworn to reduce its direct and indirect carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and to match the Paris agreement on climate change.
In Paris, the organizers decided to concentrate on the temporary or existing infrastructure in order to avoid emissions with new facilities. The organizers said that the 2024 summer games reduced the CO2 footprint of the games by more than 54 percent, compared to the average in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
But Los Angeles is in the spotlight in 2028 and the risk of a forest fire, after the tribute of the devastating blazes of last autumn, which killed almost 30 people and destroyed thousands of houses and other structures.
Vincent said it was a memory of the responsibility to ensure that they protect the environment. Therefore, she would like to make sure that she is at the top of the IOC priority list.
“It felt like the right time to add my name to this list and to continue this conversation with the IOC.”
