Winter Olympics officials suggest major date shift due to climate change

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering staging future Winter Olympic Games as early as January, a significant shift driven by the escalating impact of warmer temperatures.

Historically, all Winter Games medals have been awarded in February since the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics. Moving to January would likely disrupt established World Cup races and events, and clash more directly with NFL and NBA schedules.

This potential alteration forms part of a broader review of Olympic Games issues during the first year of Kirsty Coventry's presidency.

Karl Stoss, the IOC member overseeing the sports programme review, told reporters: "Maybe we are also discussing to bring the Winter Olympics a little bit earlier."

"To do it in January because it has an implication for the Paralympics as well."

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The Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games will be held March 6-15.

The IOC has long acknowledged under Coventry's predecessor Thomas Bach that changing climate is a challenge for finding future hosts and organizing competitions."

(March) is very late because the sun is strong enough to melt the snow," said Stoss, whose home country Austria is a traditional power in Alpine skiing and ski jumping."

Maybe the Paralympics will be in February and the other edition will be in January. That would also be a part of our discussion," he said on the sidelines of the IOC's eve-of-Olympics meeting in Milan.

With temperatures rising across the globe, natural snow is becoming less plentiful in some regions and water availability for snowmaking is falling as a result of climate change, putting the global snow sport industry at risk.

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By 2040 only 10 nations will be able to host the snow sports of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to an IOC study.

The 2022 Beijing Games became the first Winter Olympics to use virtually 100% artificial snow by deploying more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-making guns working flat out to cover the ski slopes.

The 100-plus IOC members should meet again in June to make decisions about the Olympic reviews, in a program called "Fit For The Future," and whether to add new sports and events to the 2030 French Alps Winter Games.

The French Alps edition is currently expected to run Feb. 1-17 and the 2034 Utah Winter Games from Feb. 10-26.

Additional reporting by Reuters.