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A16 sports
Wednesday 12 January 2022
Climate change: Athletes flag the dangers of manmade snow

By MARTHA BELLISLE '90s, you could have gnar-
Associated Press lier downhills and corners
A British skier crashes because they came one
through wooden fencing at a time," he said.
on a downhill corner and Unlike Alpine equipment,
slams into a pole, breaking cross county skis don't have
his leg. An American hits an metal edges. They're de-
icy patch at the bottom signed to be thin and light-
of a hill and crashes into weight for climbing hills and
a fence, breaking one ski gliding over flats. The boots
and twisting the other, also are flexible and connect to
breaking his leg. the ski with a single metal
Another American, train- bar under the toe. Nordic
ing before a biathlon race, skiers don't use the edge of
slides out on an icy corner the ski to navigate around
and flies off the trail into a a corner. Instead, they
tree, breaking ribs and a take fast baby steps to get
shoulder blade and punc- around the curve.
tures a lung. All of that is more difficult
These were not scenes on manmade snow.
from high speed Alpine or Olympic gold medalist and
ski cross events. They hap- U.S. Nordic ski team mem-
pened on cross country ski ber Jessie Diggins said she
and biathlon tracks made Associated Press has reached 76 kilome-
with artificial snow. snow comes with risks. ous than if it was natural er and faster than before," ters per hour (47 mph) go-
Many top athletes say "Artificial snow is icier, snow conditions," said Chris said Gus Schumacher, a ing downhill on manmade
crashes like these are be- therefore faster and more Grover, head cross country member of the U.S. cross snow "and it is scary be-
coming more common as dangerous," she said. "It coach for the U.S. Ski Team. country team. cause most of our race trails
climate change reduces also hurts more if you fall Some venues even make John Aalberg, a former are built for natural snow."
the availability of natu- outside of the course when snow and then store it un- Olympic cross country ski- "I think it is getting a little
ral snow, forcing racers to there is no fluffy snowbank, der wood chips through er who designs Olympic more dangerous and I've
compete on tracks with the but a rocky and muddy the summer and spread it Nordic ski courses, includ- noticed at the World Cup
manmade version. Olym- hard ground." Manmade around a track when it gets ing for the Beijing Games, when it is manmade snow,
pic and World Cup race snow has a higher moisture cold. Artificial snow, wel- said they always consider it is scary because instead
organizers have come to content, making it ice up come as it may be, does icy conditions when de- of sliding on snow you're
rely on snow-making equip- quickly, skiers and experts not get better with age. signing a course. He said sliding on ice," added Dig-
ment to create a ribbon of say. Race organizers should a bigger safety issue was gins, the overall World Cup
white through the hills since "It can be really rock hard take that into consideration the change in race formats winner for the 2020-21 sea-
natural snowfall is less reli- out there and falling can when designing courses, from individual starts to son. "I think we're seeing a
able. Johanna Taliharm, an feel like falling on con- skiers and experts say. mass starts. higher percentage of falls.
Estonian Olympic biathlete, crete, and so it does make "It's pretty universally recog- "When you ski one-by-one I feel it is a little more dan-
said racing on manmade it a little bit more danger- nized that courses are firm- like they used to do in the gerous now."q

Barça-Madrid in Super Cup, Chelsea-

Spurs 2nd leg

champion Atlético Madrid competition for the first son, but Inter coach Sim-
and Copa del Rey runner- time since 2019, when it one Inzaghi has beaten
up Athletic Bilbao. Madrid lost to Manchester City on the Bianconeri in both his
made it to the "Final Four" penalties, and win it for previous matches in the
after finishing second to the sixth time. Tottenham competition — as Lazio
Atlético in the league last was the runner-up to City coach in 2017 and '19. The
season. Barcelona quali- last season and won the match will be staged at
fied as the Copa del Rey last of its four League Cup San Siro, where Inter plays
champion. titles in 2008. In the Premier its home games. Inter leads
Associated Press ENGLAND League, West Ham hosts Serie A and has 11 points
A look at what's happen- ic. Barcelona is expected Chelsea takes a 2-0 lead last-place Norwich in a more than fifth-place Ju-
ing in European soccer on to be boosted by the re- over Tottenham into the game that has been rear- ventus, which will have
Wednesday: turns of Pedri González and second leg of the League ranged after initially being gained confidence by ral-
SPAIN Ferran Torres, who rejoined Cup semifinals. Tottenham postponed last month be- lying for a 4-3 win at Roma
Barcelona and Real Ma- the squad in time for the has the advantage of be- cause of COVID-19 cases from 3-1 down on Sunday.
drid meet in their second match after testing posi- ing home for the return in Norwich's squad. Goalkeeper Wojciech
"clásico" of the season in tive for the coronavirus. match but will be without ITALY Szczęsny saved a late pen-
the semifinals of the Span- Madrid will be led by the key forward Son Heung- Serie A champion Inter Mi- alty in that match but will
ish Super Cup. The compe- red-hot duo of Karim Ben- min, who has a muscle lan and Italian Cup winner be on the bench against
tition returns to Saudi Ara- zema and Vinícius Júnior. injury in his leg and is un- Juventus meet in the Super Inter as he has only recent-
bia after being played in The other semifinal will be likely to be back until next Cup. Juventus has won the ly had his second dose
Spain last year because of played Thursday between month. Chelsea is looking competition a record nine of the vaccine against
the coronavirus pandem- defending Spanish league to reach the final of the times, including last sea- coronavirus.q