Ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, AP brought together its sports and climate reporting teams for a smart, timely and deeply reported story on how climate change is threatening the long-term future of the Winter Games.
The team moved quickly to be the first to report on new research from University of Waterloo professor Daniel Scott, who found that shifting snow conditions may force the Olympics to be held up to three weeks earlier in the calendar to ensure cold enough weather. The team paired that scoop with an on-the-ground profile of Grenoble, the French city that hosted the 1968 Winter Games but is unlikely to do so again — despite France being set to host the 2030 event — due to increasingly unreliable snowfall.
Data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed a compelling analysis using Berkeley Earth data, showing warming trends over the past century at past and prospective Winter Olympic sites. Her graphic clearly illustrated which iconic venues have seen the most dramatic temperature increases — and which may no longer be viable options in the future.
The result was a compelling, cross-desk package that highlighted how one of the world’s most beloved sports traditions is being reshaped by a changing planet.
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