Olympians worry as ‘Winter’ disappears from Winter Games

By HOWARD FENDRICH and PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writers

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Olympic athletes in Alpine skiing and other outdoor sports dependent on snow are worried as they see winters disappearing. Ski racers who will compete entirely on manufactured snow during the Beijing Games in February know that global warming is threatening the future of their sport. The present is not terrific, either. The nearby hills at the World Cup stop in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains in early December were brown and barren. A recent study projects that, without a dramatic reduction of global emissions of greenhouse gases, only one of the previous 21 Winter Olympics sites would be able to reliably provide fair and safe conditions by the end of this century.