Leading skiers have raised alarm over rapidly shrinking glaciers during the Winter Games in Cortina.
Lindsey Vonn said many glaciers she trained on as a child have almost disappeared.
Mikaela Shiffrin added that athletes witness climate change from a “front-row view”.
Italy’s Federica Brignone said her concern extends beyond skiing to the planet’s future.
Glaciers provide reliable snow for training, but warming temperatures are eroding them.
Italy has lost more than 200 square kilometres of glacier area since the late 1950s.
Researchers report the decline has accelerated in the past two decades.
Near Cortina, former glaciers have shrunk to small ice patches.
The Marmolada glacier, the largest in the Dolomites, has halved in 25 years.
A deadly ice collapse there in 2022 showed the growing risks in the mountains.
Scientists say global heating will determine how much ice survives.
Limiting warming to 1.5°C could preserve about 100 Alpine glaciers.
Higher temperatures would see many vanish within decades.
The loss affects more than sport.
Glaciers store freshwater, stabilise slopes and influence sea levels.
Athletes and researchers say cutting fossil-fuel emissions this decade is crucial to slow the trend.
