- By Chemmy Alcott
- Four-time presenter of Winter Olympics and Ski Sundays
56 minutes ago
image source, Chemmy Alcott
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Chemmy Alcott with her husband, former British ski racer Dougie Crawford, and their sons
My eldest son Locki, who is seven years old, wants to be a ski racer like me and his father, but I'm really torn.
I don't know if the sport that has given me so much opportunity and love will be available to Locki and his little brother Cooper.
It has been 100 years since Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924, but research by the International Olympic Committee last year found that only 10 countries will be able to host snow sports by 2040 due to the effects of climate change.
Chamonix's legacy is rightly celebrated – but actually I think it's sad to celebrate something that is changing so radically.
We're in Chamonix right now and wanted to show you the Men's Downhill World Cup action from here on this week's episode of Ski Sunday. However, due to the high temperatures and the associated poor snow conditions, it was canceled, as was the women's downhill run in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Cancellations are becoming the norm. I feel like we are not giving the mountains that give us this opportunity to show how great our sport is the love and protection they need.
We do not adapt to the environment. We ask the environment to adapt to race, and we can't. Instead, we need to look at the calendar, look at the mountains and the snow depth and work with nature.
Everyone now knows they need to speak out and athletes are demanding change.
“The height of Big Ben, lost in my life”
I learned to ski when I was 18 months old, and at 10 I skied Vallee Blanche for the first time – an off-piste descent on glaciers next to Mont Blanc, one of the most famous runs in the world.
You always remember your first win in sports. Well, I remember the first time I skied in Vallee Blanche.
And then I returned there 25 years later and thought I knew what to expect. But I was just blown away by how much it had changed.
When I was 10, I took five steps from the catwalk to the gondola. When I returned 25 years later, those five steps had become 580.
The glacier has lost so much volume at the bottom, more than 100 m – that's more than the height of Big Ben. Think of the vertical height I have lost in my life.
image source, Chemmy Alcott
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Chemmy Alcott about Vallee Blanche
Now as you climb the steps you will see a plaque every 10m indicating the retreat of the glacier and you can see how quickly it is happening.
It's something you can't ignore once you've seen it. I have developed a passion for it, but I admit it took me a long time to become passionate about it.
When I was ski racing for Great Britain I didn't really look up to what was around me. From 1999 to 2014, I spent my life in a very selfish cycle of traveling the world, racing, training, and then traveling again. I wanted to be as quick as possible.
It wasn't until my second time in Vallee Blanche that I realized how the mountains were changing right before my eyes – and I really started to care.
This threat of the immediate future causes me to try to make the changes I can. So many people care about the mountains, but don't know how to make a difference.
But it's about us all trying together to make protecting our winters more positive.
There is hope that resorts will be powered by renewable energy. It's hoped snow trains will now run from London to the Alps, helping you massively reduce your carbon footprint.
There is hope in what you can do. I rent my clothes, drive an electric car, eat less meat and took the snow train to the Alps this winter. It's about practicality over perfection, about adjusting your expectations and making a few sacrifices.
I am 100% afraid for my sons' future in skiing. There's no way you could live the life I did as a professional skier. I used to fly to New Zealand every summer to ski, but I won't recommend that to my kids because it's not good for the planet.
That's why we just enjoy every moment in the snow that we can have right now, because we know that these moments are not endless.
Watch Ski Sunday on ` Two and ` iPlayer from 17:15 GMT on February 4th.
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