Winter Olympics, did you know that | artificial snow is harmful? It's fake news, it's a joke

The Paper's reporter Qi Dong

At the Winter Olympics, snow is the most important component. In the various snow test matches of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China's snowmaking technology and venue repair ability were widely praised by athletes at home and abroad.

Among them, we have to mention artificial snow. From a scientific point of view, it is not advisable to unilaterally regard artificial snow as "fake snow", and Yan Jiarong, spokesman for the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, also said that artificial snowmaking at the Beijing Winter Olympics will not have an impact on regional water security and ecological environment.

So, why does the Winter Olympics need artificial snowmaking? What are the benefits of artificial snowmaking?

Genting venues make snow in accordance with the proportion of artificial snowmaking accounted for 60% and natural snowfall accounted for 40%.

According to the history of the Winter Olympics, Lake Placid in 1980 was the first Winter Olympics to adopt artificial snowmaking measures. In recent years, artificial snow has been heavily used at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Sochi and Pyeongchang.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, artificial snow was used at 90% of the total amount of snow used.

Joe Fitzgerald, the former director of the INTERNATIONAL Snow Federation's freestyle ski competition, once explained the significance of artificial snowmaking in an interview with Xinhua News Agency - the so-called snowmaking is just the transformation of liquid water into a solid form under low temperature conditions, "Snow fields use water to make snow is like farmers watering crops, and this is the case in snow fields all over the world." ”

First, artificial snowmaking saves labor and machinery costs.

The FIA document "Design Requirements for Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics" states that the snow track needs to guarantee about 71,500 cubic meters of snow, and when this figure is added to the melting coefficient, it will reach 107,200 cubic meters. Even smaller, large-jump tracks need to maintain at least 11,000 cubic meters of snow.

These figures mean that in a limited ski competition venue, it is difficult to accumulate such a high amount of snow through natural snowfall. At the same time, because these tracks are often built in the mountains with complex terrain, it is difficult to carry natural snow from other places, and the transportation cost is not cost-effective.

Therefore, the use of artificial snow to build slopes saves a lot of mechanical and labor costs.

"I was surprised when I heard about the negative comments about artificial snowmaking, because snowmaking itself is a requirement for running the race. Moreover, even if it is not for the purpose of running a competition, snowmaking is a real need. David Serato, a special expert of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee who is currently responsible for snowmaking, snow pressure, track shaping and maintenance in Zhangjiakou, also said.

Snowmaking at the National Alpine Ski Centre.

Secondly, artificial snowmaking ensures the safety of the race.

Due to the high amount of impurities in the natural snow, it needs to be cleaned before it can be used. Artificial snow, by contrast, is cleaner.

Once the alpine ski track is ready, new snowfall will become the "enemy" of the race. The AFC's Track Specialist Training Manual includes the timely removal of new snowfall: "If it snows at night, postpone track preparation until the next morning." ”

Naturally occurring snowfall, melted snow that re-condenses, long-term accumulation of snow and other snow conditions have different physical characteristics, and even differences in snow temperature can affect their traits – in order to meet the fairness of sports events, trait stability is very important for ski tracks.

The American Ski Association's Track Specialist Training Manual describes that almost all work, including snowmaking, has only one purpose, which is to ensure that athletes can enjoy stable and fair track conditions regardless of the order of departure.

In short, this fair condition is manifested in the fact that the pistes are hard enough. "Snow is a very complex material that can be said to be very difficult to handle." Fitzgerald points out that artificial snow is more likely to be formed into uniform snow trails after being pressed, leveled, and injected with water (in order to form hard, icy snow) than natural snow, which is more physically variable.

"The pistes should not turn into what skiers call 'rotten snow' [during competitions], because in that case, athletes will easily be stuck on the edges of the board when gliding, causing them to roll over or even get injured."

The master workers in charge of making snow.

Third, the pollution and waste of water resources caused by artificial snowmaking is nonsense.

"Snowmaking is by no means a waste of water, because it eventually returns to nature and it doesn't leave the basin." Nikolai Barak Lincoln, who was in charge of organizing the alpine skiing competition at the Sochi and Pingchang Winter Olympics and is now a foreign distinguished expert for the Beijing Winter Olympics, said.

Lu Hongyou, general manager of the venue operation branch of Beikong Jingao Construction Co., Ltd., a construction unit in Yanqing, also said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the water source used by the National Alpine Ski Center for snowmaking comes from two channels, one is the natural lake under the mountain, and the other is the mountain water source circulation system.

The system consists of two pools that collect rainfall and meltwater for efficient recycling.

According to the relevant person in charge of Beijing Jinhe Water Construction Group Co., Ltd., the meltwater received by the National Alpine Ski Center after the snow season and the rainwater received daily will be collected through the confluence of natural ditches in the competition area to the tang dam located at an altitude of 900 meters, which will be used for the greening of the competition area and the snowmaking of the next snow season.

At the same time, the pond dam can also be used as a landscape reservoir, which is an important part of the landscape of the competition area and a model for the sustainable use of water resources. Fourth, artificial snowmaking patterns have been used for a long time.

As a country with a skiing tradition in Asia, The village of Hakuba in Nagano Prefecture, Japan's famous ice and snow mecca, has been making snow since before the 1998 Winter Olympics.

In the months leading up to the 1998 Winter Olympics, Nagano was severely short of snow, and the head of the organizing committee even went to a local temple with a history of 1,400 years to pray in anticipation of heavy snowfall.

At that time, the Nagano Winter Olympic Organizing Committee said that once the snow volume was insufficient during the competition, they would use enough snow machines to build artificial ski tracks.

In Japan, the snowy areas are mainly concentrated in Hokkaido and a few areas such as Nagano and Niigata on the coast of the Sea of Japan, but in hokkaido's Sapporo Teeda Ski Resort, there are also many artificial snow machines - even if it does not snow, it is necessary to artificially create enough snow to ensure that the snow field is open.

At the Karuizawa Ski Resort near Tokyo, snow is continuously made every night, with a total of 7 artificial snow machines and 195 artificial snow machines to ensure that the snow in the snow field is sufficient.

It can be said that artificial snowmaking is already a mature and scientific technology, as Fitzgerald said - "The people who write the 'fake snow' report of the Winter Olympics are not really consulting experts, and they do not know how the ski industry and the Winter Olympics are actually working." ”

"Reporting on the Winter Olympics in fake news is a joke."

Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas

Proofreader: Yan Zhang