What Artificial Snow at the 2022 Olympics Means for the Future of Winter Games

February 7, 2022

The lack of natural snow is a first for the Winter Games—though it’s hardly an anomaly. Artificial snow was first used at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, but it has been growing in prevalence in the most recent Games. About 80% of the snow used in Sochi, Russia in 2014 was artificial, and that number went as high as 98% for the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018. Time