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Before Ruhpolding home game: climate change: Biathlon World Cup only possible through a show of strength

Before Ruhpolding home game: climate change: Biathlon World Cup only possible through a show of strength

The excessively high temperatures have long since had far-reaching consequences for winter sports. This will be visible this week at the Biathlon World Cup in Ruhpolding.

Even while training in shorts and a T-shirt on New Year’s Eve, Roman Rees had a bad feeling. “I thought about whether a competition could be prepared at all and then take place,” said the biathlete. In January, which is much too warm, there will be a World Cup in Ruhpolding this week, but the efforts for it are increasing.

“That concerns me because I notice that something is changing,” said Rees: “Even if I look back four years, I realize that something is wrong with winter.”

This can also be clearly seen in Chiemgau. Despite the rain and heat, the helpers put a lot of effort into preparing the course so that the men’s singles can start on Wednesday (2:10 p.m. / ARD and Eurosport). There was only snow from the depots, stored from the previous year. In the otherwise green region there is now a white band on which the skiers are supposed to contest six races until Sunday. But whether that really works also depends on how the weather develops. It’s supposed to rain again and get up to eight degrees warm.

Olympic champion bleeds the heart

“It’s really bad, my heart bleeds when I’m there and see how nature is just waking up, as if it were already spring,” said Olympic champion Denise Herrmann-Wick, adding: “We’re all shaking and looking forward to the Home World Cup. We hope the conditions are cool but it looks really sad.”

In the past, Ruhpolding often resembled a winter wonderland in January, covered in deep snow, sometimes even too much fell from the sky. It’s different now, the snow is stored in the depot. “The areas where there is snow security are becoming less,” said climate researcher Werner Aeschbach from the Institute for Environmental Physics in Heidelberg of the German Press Agency: “But there will still be a lot of snow at 2,000 meters. Below 1,000 meters there is this certainty but not in the medium term.”

And so it will also be difficult for professional winter sports in Central Europe. Herrmann-Wick and Co. would have liked to train in Ruhpolding around the holidays, but it was too warm and there were no trails. Just like in Oberhof, where the Biathlon World Championships will take place in a month. There is also a lack of snow in the Thuringian Forest, and the routes on the Rennsteig are also covered with reserves from the large depots and prepared for the competitions. The hosting of the World Championships should currently be just as little in danger as the Ruhpolding races, the world association IBU confirmed to the dpa request. The organizers of the Alpine World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen also had to tremble for a long time, and in Oberstdorf the Tour de Ski or Four Hills Tournament looked more dreary than wintry.

Within the IBU, the topics of sustainability and climate change play a major role, and the ecological footprint of the organizers has long been taken into account. The next few years will be challenging, because the climate crisis will mean that there will be less snow and shorter cold phases in many places. In December, snow was forced to be delivered by truck in France to save the event from being canceled.

discussions about the future

So what to do? “We are aware of the topic and of course we are discussing what a biathlon calendar of the future could look like,” said IBU Media Director Christian Winkler: “There are a lot of adjustment screws, it’s not an easy undertaking.” The program will be fixed by the 2025/2026 season, and the first adjustments will probably only be made in the period up to 2030. Whether the length of the season will be changed, new regions will have to be developed or organizers will lose their World Cup status is still completely open.

“It’s going so fast right now, and the temperatures are absurdly warm,” says Rees. In his home town of Freiburg, the 29-year-old trained around the turn of the year in temperatures of up to 19 degrees, almost like in the summer. Herrmann-Wick had to leave her adopted home in Ruhpolding. “I fled, looking for snow and better training conditions,” said the 34-year-old. She found what she was looking for in South Tyrol and Switzerland, Germany’s best biathlete Benedikt Doll gave up ski training and was forced to switch to roller skis. “It’s really screaming, it’s really no fun at all,” said the Black Forester in view of the few wintry conditions: “You have to think about winter sports because you just need the snow.”

Nordic athletes are too often forced onto roller skis, they call it an “alternative training tool”. But this alternative is becoming a problem, especially for the youngsters. The next generation will lack basic training, Rees suspects. He himself has stood on snow for many years, so he was able to learn the right technique. But: “When I think of my colleagues in the training group, it’s difficult when they only have to jog or scooter in winter.”

Source: Stern

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