SSki racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde sees climate change as a threat to the health of athletes and has called on the FIS to take action. He hopes that the International Ski and Snowboard Federation “recognizes the need for changes in the racing calendar,” the Norwegian told the newspaper Verdens Gang. There’s a lot to do there, “but it’s always the money that counts,” he emphasized.
“Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, which also has an effect on the slope conditions,” explained the overall World Cup winner from 2020. One or two races, such as the slaloms in Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Zagreb, were “done by hook or by crook”, “so that the safety of the drivers was endangered”. In general, it happens again and again “that the organizers go too far because they have to go through the races for commercial reasons”.
The 30-year-old sees his sport as “absolutely” under threat, mild temperatures in winter, as is currently the case in Central Europe, and borderline slope conditions “we are seeing more and more often. This is definitely a big challenge that very little is being done about.”
Seeing white artificial snow bands in the middle of a green mountain landscape in the high season is “crazy”, said Kilde and demanded: “We have to go to those places in the world where we can do it properly.”
