As winter athletes who have competed at the highest levels of our sports, we joined more than 140 elite athletes from more than 20 countries in signing an open letter to the International Olympic Committee at the start of the Milano Cortina games. Our position is straightforward: fossil fuel companies shouldn't be sponsoring winter sports.

For us, this is not a political statement. It is about protecting the future of winter sport itself.

In Canada, snow and ice are more than seasonal features; they define our culture, recreation, health and communities — from frozen ponds and local ski hills to the slopes of the Olympics. Winter is not just a backdrop for these sports; it is the foundation that makes them possible. 

We have trained on glaciers that no longer exist. We have watched ski seasons shrink and ice routes disappear. Competition schedules that once followed reliable patterns now depend on narrow weather windows. The Winter Olympics have come to rely heavily on artificial snow because natural conditions can no longer be counted on — but snowmaking requires vast amounts of energy and only works when it's cold.

The science is clear: by 2050, only a handful of traditional Winter Olympic venues will remain climatically viable. The mountains and winters we have built our lives around are being fundamentally altered by climate change, which is driven overwhelmingly by fossil fuels. 

Sponsorship is about association, credibility and social permission. Yet fossil fuel companies, whose core business is the leading driver of global warming, continue to be promoted alongside images of pristine mountains, endurance and peak human performance. Their logos appear in ceremonies, arenas and broadcasts for events that depend on the very conditions their products are helping to erase. The contradiction has become impossible to ignore: the world’s most visible celebration of snow and ice is littered with branding from the industry that is profiting from its destruction.

Sport has faced a similar reckoning before. Tobacco companies once held deep ties to major sporting events, despite overwhelming evidence that their products harmed public health. In 1988, Calgary held the first tobacco-ad-free Winter Games, setting a precedent that led to a permanent ban on Olympic tobacco sponsorship. 

We are asking the IOC to establish a formal dialogue with athlete reps, to ground sponsorship decisions in climate science and to adopt a clear policy excluding fossil fuel companies from Olympic sponsorships, write Andi Naude and Ingrid Liepa

At the time, the IOC recognized that the health of athletes and the public could not be aligned with an industry whose products caused widespread harm. That decision was controversial, but it was the right one. And sport found new sponsors. Today, climate science demands similar leadership. Fossil fuels are as incompatible with the survival of winter sports as tobacco is with athletes' health.

The International Olympic Committee has pledged to reduce the Games’ environmental impact and protect athlete health. Continuing to partner with fossil fuel producers directly undermines those commitments and jeopardizes the future of winter sport.

Governments and sporting institutions have the power to ensure that future Winter Olympics are no longer sponsored by companies whose profits depend on destabilizing the climate. We are asking the IOC to establish a formal dialogue with athlete representatives, to ground sponsorship decisions in climate science and to adopt a clear policy excluding fossil fuel companies from Olympic sponsorships.

Ending fossil fuel sponsorship will not solve the climate crisis, but it will stop one of the most polluting industries from using the Winter Games to launder their image and will help protect the conditions that winter sports require.  If the Olympics are meant to represent excellence, fairness and a shared future, they cannot continue to give their most prominent platform to the industry melting the snow beneath their feet.

Andi Naude is a Canadian freestyle skier who competed in freestyle moguls at the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea. Ingrid Liepa is a Canadian speed skater who competed at the 1994 and 1998 Olympic Games in Norway and Japan, respectively.

© National Observer