By 2050, between 50 and 60 percent of the areas suitable for winter sports in Europe will be unusable. This worries IOC President Thomas Bach.

Bach now cries out warning of what he described as the troubling consequences for Olympic winter sports and the future of the Winter Olympics, news agency DPA writes.

The head of the International Olympic Committee says that between 50 and 60 percent of the areas in Europe suitable for hosting the Winter Olympic Games will be unsuitable for this purpose in 2050. The reason is climate change.

At some point, Bach says, said regions will no longer invest money in sports that require snow and ice. Instead, the financial efforts will be directed towards, for example, hiking and mountain biking experiences for tourists.

deferred allocation

The chief executive of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also noted that winters will be shorter as a result of climate change.

– It raises the question of how much time is left from the Olympics, World Cups, Olympics and Paralympics, says Bach.

The next Winter Olympics will be held in 2026 in the northern Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. So far, no organizer has been chosen for the Games in 2030.

The awarding of the latter event was recently postponed on the grounds that the IOC would first gain more knowledge about global warming.

More candidates

American Salt Lake City and Canadian Vancouver City signed on to the list of respective organizers. So does Sapporo, but the Japanese capital has halted its application as a result of the corruption scandal that was revealed in connection with last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Japanese prosecutors have arrested the president of the Summer Games. According to AFP, he is suspected of taking bribes to help companies become official sponsors of the Olympics.

The company that produced the games with the official Olympic mascot is also implicated in the scandal.