In early January, more than 90,000 figure skating fans gathered in St. Louis to watch the glitz and grind of the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships – the final Olympic qualifier for Team USA figure skaters. But like with all things, it came at a cost.
For the past eight years, I too have competed, performed and trained in the discipline of women’s singles skating. I’ve also spent six of those years as a climate advocate. This duality is precisely why I can admit that figure skating, like other Olympic ice sports, is unsustainable in its current form. Ice sports decision-makers have an obligation to save the temperate foundation of our sport – for the sake of other Winter Olympic sports and, most important, our planet.
Warming winters have piqued concern within the International Olympic Committee in recent years. The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing were notably the first Winter Games to use solely artificial snow, relying on more than 192 million gallons of water. This upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Milan will likely use 85 million cubic feet of artificial snow to address declines in snowfall due to warming temperatures.
Artificial snow production is notoriously water-resource intensive. One French environmental group – Collectif Citoyen – is pursuing legal action against 2030 French Alps Winter Olympics organizers due to the degradation, according to The Associated Press, of “water resources and fragile mountain ecosystems” that would be harmed by venue construction and other aspects of hosting the games.
