Olympian sounds alarm as warming winters wipe out cross-country skiing's snow

Photo Credit: Getty Images Olympian Julia Kern has built her career around snow. Now, she is using her voice to help protect it. The cross-country skier, coming off a packed season of Olympic and World Cup racing, has become increasingly outspoken about climate action as warming winters put the future of her sport at risk.

For Kern, the issue is deeply personal. It is tied to the places she trains and the courses she races on. Her advocacy has grown out of what she has seen firsthand.

In an interview with Yale Climate Connections , Kern described how shrinking snowpack and increasingly unpredictable winters are already reshaping cross-country skiing. Many ski areas now rely on artificial snow just to operate, and midwinter thaws can leave race courses slushy before freezing temperatures turn them to ice. "Now, most cross-country ski areas have to have some form of snowmaking capability to even be viable in the winter," Kern told Yale Climate Connections.

"All of my world championships that I've experienced have been really warm, slushy conditions where we're skiing in T-shirts some of the time. " The impacts extend beyond the race season. Kern, who lives in Vermont, said wildfire smoke from Canada last year also interfered with her offseason training, with poor air quality keeping her from training outdoors for several weeks.