WASHINGTON – Turns out you don’t need natural snow to host the Winter Olympics.
Some of the events like skiing, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding are held all have artificial snow on the paths.
Officials in Beijing had to create artificial snow because their natural snow wasn’t reliable for the entire winter games, but is that going to make a difference in performance?
“The snow will be firmer and not nearly as soft as natural snow but they inject a lot of water and make it hard as well,” said Justin Tornow, Grooming and Snow Making Supervisor at White Pass Ski Area. “A lot of the racecourses, as far as skiing goes and jumping and stuff.”
What is the difference between natural snow and artificial snow?
“Natural snow is more like the classic snowflake that you think of for Christmas time and stuff,” said Tornow. “It’s a big open feathery kind of thing and man-made snow is more of a granular shape, kind of a palate with a little bit more moisture content to it, they bind together a little better.”
Does artificial snow affect the way someone will perform? A professor at the University of Washington thinks so.
“Nordic skiing events, where the skis are set up a bit differently that can be, pose a real danger for the athletes particularly when they take turns,” said Dr. Mia Hagen, Sports Medicine Center Doctor in the Husky Stadium at the University of Washington.
Another concern she has is the location of the snow.
“When man-made snow is put on the ground they don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the areas outside the course or just outside the track 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,” said Hagen.
Tarnow says he doesn’t think the artificial snow will affect the Olympians that much because they’ve probably trained on snow like that most of their careers.
