Greenland Olympian warns climate change threatens winter sports

Thursday 12 February 2026 - 09:50

By: Dakir Madiha

Greenland Olympian warns climate change threatens winter sports

As Greenlandic biathlete Ukaleq Slettemark competes at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, she says both her homeland and her sport face the same existential challenge: a warming planet that is steadily erasing snow and ice from Europe’s mountains and the Arctic alike.

In an opinion piece published Monday in Time, the 24 year old athlete wrote that the sport she loves is becoming harder to recognize as a winter discipline. Slettemark, who represents Denmark because Greenland does not have its own Olympic committee, recalled racing at the 2024 World Championships on a narrow strip of artificial snow bordered by grass and mud, with asphalt visible beneath her skis.

The Winter Games in Milano Cortina, which opened on February 6, have relied heavily on manufactured snow to ensure consistent conditions across Alpine venues. Organizers produced more than 56 million cubic feet of artificial snow for the competition. Data from Climate Central show that average February temperatures in Cortina d’Ampezzo have risen by 6.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the city last hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956. Over the same period, the average annual number of freezing days has fallen from 214 to 173.

The International Olympic Committee said last week it may consider moving future Winter Games from February to January to adapt to rising temperatures. Research cited by the IOC indicates that of the 93 venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics, only 52 are projected to retain reliable snow cover by 2050.

In Greenland, the effects of climate change extend beyond elite sport. In the southwest of the island, sea ice had still not formed by February, threatening the livelihoods of hunters who depend on stable winter conditions. Malik Kleist, a 37 year old hunter, told AFP that seals are usually found on the ice or in calmer waters, but this season hunters have had to travel into fjords to locate them.

The Greenlandic government postponed a musk ox hunt scheduled for January 31 due to insufficient snow and ice to transport animals from their primary habitat, leaving some hunters facing financial strain. The island’s sled dog population has also declined sharply, halving over the past two decades from 25,000 to 13,000 as shrinking sea ice reduces their practical use.

Last year was exceptionally warm in Greenland. The Summit weather station atop the ice sheet recorded an average December temperature 8.1 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 average. Scientists say the Arctic has warmed roughly four times faster than the global average since 1979.

Slettemark’s brother, Sondre Slettemark, fulfilled a lifelong ambition on Tuesday by competing in the demanding 20 kilometer individual biathlon event at the Olympics, finishing 62nd. Both siblings have spoken about the responsibility they feel to defend their homeland while competing on the world stage.

“If winter sports want a future with snow,” Ukaleq Slettemark wrote, “they must start by choosing sponsors that are not helping to melt it.”