List of viable Winter Games hosts shrinking

OTTAWA Climate change could turn out to be the Winter Olympics’ biggest spoil sport.

An updated study led by geography Prof. Daniel Scott at the University of Waterloo says the number of places that will be cold enough to host the Winter Olympics is dropping.

The average temperature during the seven Winter Olympics held before 1960 was 0.4 C. At the 11 Games held between 1960 and 2000, it was 3.1 C. In the four Games held this century, it was 7.8 C.

The trend is partly because the International Olympic Committee is picking warmer places to host. Sochi, Russia, which staged the last Games in 2014, is a subtropical resort town where Russians go to escape winter. Vancouver, which hosted in 2010, is second only to nearby Victoria as the warmest place in Canada in winter.

But even so, every one of the 19 cities that hosted the Games before this year is warmer in the winter now than it was when they hosted, Scott said.

By mid-century, global warming will mean only 11 of them will still be cold enough to reliably host the Games again. By the end of this century, that number will drop to eight.

In Canada, Calgary and Edmonton are realistically the last ones standing as cold enough options for future Winter Olympics. Calgary is working on a bid for the 2026 Games now.

The good news is Pyeongchang, South Korea, which will host the 23rd Winter Games next month, is on the list of 11 cities still cold enough to host.

Pyeongchang organizers were fretting last month it may even be too cold, worrying a predicted temperature of -14 C for opening night will keep people away from the first opening ceremony to be held in an outdoor stadium since Lillehammer in 1994.