Top Alpine skiers have raised alarm over rapidly shrinking glaciers during the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Athletes including Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin and Federica Brignone say climate change is transforming the mountains where they train and compete.
Italy has lost more than 200 square kilometres of glacier area since the late 1950s.
Many glaciers once visible from Cortina have shrunk to small ice patches high in the Dolomites.
Major ice now remains mainly on the Marmolada glacier, which is also melting quickly.
Skiers rely on glaciers for reliable early-season snow.
Vonn said many training sites from her youth have almost disappeared.
Shiffrin described athletes as having a “front-row view” of the changes and warned the future of the sport is uncertain.
Scientists report an accelerating decline in glacier volume over the past two decades.
Some Dolomite glaciers have already lost a third of their area since the 1960s.
Globally, more than 6.5 trillion tonnes of ice have vanished since 2000.
The loss increases mountain hazards, reduces water supplies and contributes to sea-level rise.
The 2022 collapse on the Marmolada, which killed 11 hikers, highlighted the risks.
Researchers say limiting warming to 1.5°C could preserve about 100 Alpine glaciers and extend the Marmolada’s life.
Higher warming would see it largely disappear within a decade.
Athletes say the changes are impossible to ignore.
Many now train on thinner snow, exposed rock and flowing meltwater.
They argue winter sports must push for emissions cuts and environmental protection to slow the decline.
