Sports are innovating and adapting to hold competitions even in absence of winter.
Observation: The Junior Nationals is the premier event for under 20 year old ski jumpers and nordic combined skiers in the United States. For the past five years the events have been held around the country in locations experiencing unusually warm conditions and low snow. This includes events held in Minnesota, Colorado, Alaska, and Connecticut. This year the host was the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove, Illinois. This winter has been unprecedented as the area has had extremely warm temperatures and little snow. One January jumping event held at Norge annually since 1905 was postponed due to snow conditions for the first time. Come late February, with the junior national event approaching, the club decided to convert the jumps to summer setup, as the conditions would not support an on-snow event. Many ski jumping programs around the world have installed steel track on the jumps and plastic on the hills so as to extend the jumping season. This is in part an adaptation to unreliable and shorter winter seasons. The nordic skiing portion of the event was moved to a nearby alpine ski area (Wilmot Mountain) as there was no snow on nordic ski trails anywhere else. Thanks to some cold weather just before the competition, Wilmot was able to make snow and prepare a course at the base on the mountain, a 1.7K loop for the individual and team events. The innovations demonstrated at Wilmot and Norge Ski Club allowed for the event to successfully occur, but with no on-snow jumping event. It is landmark event in the U.S. for the sport, a signal of the challenges that winter sports are facing globally, and an example of the kinds of adaptations that are occurring to preserve these sports, even in the absence of winter.
Supplemental: Ski Jumping and Nordic combined are winter sports. However, increasingly clubs are resorting to warm weather adaptations to extend the season and to accommodate poor snow conditions. Case in point was the U.S. junior nationals this year at Fox River Grove, Illinois. See a short video about this event, Ski jumping adapts to climate change on YouTube.
Media:
Chicago Tribune (2017-02-08) With fingers crossed, Norge Ski Club readies jump for rescheduled tournament – "The scene Tuesday night high above the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove was a bit like a Norse version of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. But instead of a punished king pushing a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back, jovial, hardworking volunteers were busy filling a wooden cart with orange bags of snow being pulled up a steep ski jump — repeating the process over and over and over. The task was to get the club's big jump ready for its 112th International Winter Tournament Saturday and Sunday, when temperatures are expected to hit the high 40s. The event was rescheduled from Jan. 21 and 22 because of rain the week prior followed by unseasonably mild temperatures that weekend. Group members claim that was the first time the event ever had to be postponed. Given the unpredictable nature of winter in the Midwest, Guy Larson, Norge Ski Club, noted the Norge tournament has taken part in all sorts of weather, yet typically draws a crowd, regardless of conditions." By Mike Danahey, Elgin Courier-News
