SEATTLE — With the Winter Olympics officially underway in Beijing Friday, a UW Medicine expert warned that athletes could face a heightened risk of becoming injured.
The Olympics is being forced to use almost exclusively artificial snow this year, according to a report out of the Loughborough University in London, due to lower snowfall levels in and around Beijing caused by climate change.
This manufactured snow could increase an athlete’s chances of becoming injured and increase the severity of their injuries for a couple of reasons, according to Dr. Mia Hagen, an orthopedic surgeon with the Sports Medicine Center at Husky Stadium.
“I think we might see more injuries than we normally do because of the course conditions, and potentially, some of those injuries may be even more serious than we would otherwise see because of the amount of speed that the athlete has when they take the fall,” Hagen said.
The issue with artificial snow compared to real snow is that it tends to be wetter, meaning that it is likely icier, harder and denser than natural snow.
This makes courses harder for those athletes who might fall and increases the speeds at which they might take a tumble.
“Nordic skiing events, where the skis are set up a little bit differently, that can pose a real—more of a danger for the athletes, particularly when they take turns on that icier snow,” Hagen said.
Additionally, Hagen said that manufactured snow is often not placed outside of a particular slope or competition zone, while natural snow often forms embankments that can soften falls should an athlete go out of bounds.
“When manmade snow is put on the ground, they usually don't pay a lot of attention to the areas outside the course or just outside the track,” Hagen said. “And so, if a fall happens, and the athlete goes off the track or off the course, they could be falling into some uncovered rocks or dirt, and that would be very concerning for an injury.”
The Loughborough University report states that the lack of natural snow at the Winter Olympics this year is “not a surprise," saying that the International Olympic Committee knew the mountains outside Beijing would need to rely on fake snow.
Additionally, the event's manmade snow will result in “49 million gallons of chemically-treated water frozen through snow machines,” the report estimates.