40-42 Hatton
Garden London
EC1N 8EB
Every four years comes the Winter Olympics, the peak of athletic performance on ice and snow. Major broadcasters stream crisp live footage of the deftest carved turns on the ski slope and most complex mid-air snowboard rotations. The Milano Cortina 2026 Games has been the epitome not only of the last 4 years but of winter sports across history and the globe, both in athletic heights and operational scale. 10 Olympic records and 1 World record were broken across figure and speed skating with Xandra Velzeboer’s 500m short-track speed skating in a 41.399s most notable.
Likewise, the 2026 Games has been an operational behemoth and feat. Spread across 22,000 km², an area larger than the size of Wales, Milano Cortina 2026 is the most geographically widespread Winter Olympic to date. Yet, the Games lived up to the demands more complex transport planning across the rugged terrain for more than 20,000 spectators and a dispersed set of smaller athlete villages as opposed to the traditional single large Olympian village node. In terms of broadcast, media coverage of the Winter Olympics has itself broken records, with a total of 492 video feed paths including live drone footage, a 40% increase on Paris 2024 less than two years ago. Indeed, the elaborate production was rewarded with over 225 million and more than 22 million TV-only viewers, for the Olympics and Paralympics respectively, nearly 100% more than the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
The 22,000 km² spread of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was an impressive operational feat (Image Source: https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/2026-olympics-winter-milan-cortina-venues-map)
But what happens now that the Winter Games are over? Do the millions of newly inspired winter sports fans go into hibernation in the summer months? And given the ever-growing threat of a warming climate, winter sports federations have been confronted with an existential crisis – do we wait for four years till we see glimpses of the future of winter sports?
The in-between is equally crucial, not only for the IOC and national teams in preparation, but for winter sports to rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. As for opportunities for elite winter athletes to grow their following and inspire new generations, new leagues have been born. The Snow League, a head-to-head style bracket format competition running through the year and dedicated to snowboarding and freeskiing, kickstarted with a $15m raise in late 2025, debuted its first season with a total prize purse of $2m and broadcast across 175 countries.
Halfpipe snowboarding Olympic gold medallist Yuto Totsuka’s run during the finals of the Snow League (Image Source: https://www.snowboard.international/features/yay-or-nay-did-the-snow-league-succeed-at-changing-the-game/?v=7885444af42e)
In fact, the effect of competitions does not stay within the circle of elite professionals, nor alpine regions laden with snow each winter. Inspired by the Winter Games, Mendip, an artificial snow sport slope centre in Somerset, England, saw a 15% increase in bookings for lessons in snowboarding and skiing, many for their first time. In fact, there has been a growing phenomenon of rural estates diversifying revenues through unique experience offers. Luton Hoo Estate on the other side of England has just completed construction of its indoor winter sports centre employing Infinity Piste technology, akin to a horizontally moving treadmill, enabling users to ski by mimicking the experience of snow. Furthermore, new innovations such as the ScoopJet® have been designed to reach the masses as a beginner friendly to the extent that users can enjoy safe yet exciting turns on the carving bob – potentially opening up winter sports to the masses, crucial to winter tourist industries since winter tourists on average are worth 6 times that of summer visitors.
Winter sports is for the masses of the world. Mendip Activity Centre’s artificial snowsport slope is southwest England’s largest outdoor activity centre (Image Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dzpv1xp19o)
The rise of winter sports is not bound to the west. Since the 2015, nearly a quarter of the Chinese population has participated in winter sports, with the number of ice rinks growing tenfold between 2015 and 2022. Such booming popularity validates the digitalisation and modernisation of winter sports, with various ventures founded y winter sports lovers including CheckYeti (a ski lesson / mountain guide booking app), PROVUU (an AR-enhanced snow goggle) and Carv (a real-time in-boot ski performance sensor).
But the Winter Games at Milano Cortina have not only created a new generation of winter sports participants but revealed major challenges awaiting solutions.
With a shrinking pool of consistently snow-laden mountainous regions to host the Games and winter sport leagues from, a widely distributed regional format like that of Milano Cortina across Italy’s alps may be necessary for future games. Yet the scale and ruggedness of the landscape demand state-of-the-art infrastructure to facilitate visitor transport and media broadcast. Thus, geospatial data platforms such as Skiif’s digital trail maps and live slope information and incident reporting, are increasingly key. Likewise, solutions like Mantis Ropeway’s AI cameras for automated ski lift monitoring trained by the peak seasons of winter tourism may come as necessary implementations. Furthermore, professors from the University of Oxford and King’s College London warn of overreliance on a small number of artificial snowmaking companies and its long-term sustainability on fragile Alpine ecosystems will soon present itself as major cost drivers and risks for ski resorts and the natural environments they heavily depend on. Sustainable and effective snowmaking and AI systems that optimise the distribution and production of artificial snow are urgent areas of research and development.
While concerns over the future of the Winter Games grow in the background in the 4-year waiting period till the next Games, the threat of climate change, drive of innovators and passion of new winter sports leagues does not stop. If anything, the Winter Games of 2022 and 2026 only show a sure trend – winter sports are not a niche activity, winter sports are for the masses. From the elite professionals to the Olympic and winter sports federations and the new learner or future winner of the Snow League and the winter sport tourist in the Alps 10 years from now, the future of Winter Sports has its clear trajectory, but it is within our hands to ensure its continued growth – and the Winter Games are just its beginning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dzpv1xp19o
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/experts-warn-of-mounting-pressures-on-global-ski-industry
https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/2026-olympics-winter-milan-cortina-venues-map
https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/news/every-olympic-record-milano-cortina-2026
https://www.trendingtopics.eu/skinnovation-7-startups-that-bring-alpine-innovation-to-the-peak/
https://www.cla.org.uk/news/a-cla-members-bold-leap-into-snow-sports
https://forbes.swiss/artikel/New-trend-in-winter-sports-investment
https://www.ft.com/content/52857396-7a6b-4224-9002-dd77fb442ef4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cm216n66384o
https://domosno.com/how-ai-is-revolutionising-snowmaking-the-technology-keeping-ski-resorts-alive
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Every four years comes the Winter Olympics, the peak of athletic performance on ice and snow. Major broadcasters stream crisp live footage of the deftest carved turns on the ski slope and most complex mid-air snowboard rotations. The Milano Cortina 2026 Games has been the epitome not only of the last 4 years but of winter sports across history and the globe, both in athletic heights and operational scale. 10 Olympic records and 1 World record were broken across figure and speed skating with Xandra Velzeboer’s 500m short-track speed skating in a 41.399s most notable.
Likewise, the 2026 Games has been an operational behemoth and feat. Spread across 22,000 km², an area larger than the size of Wales, Milano Cortina 2026 is the most geographically widespread Winter Olympic to date. Yet, the Games lived up to the demands more complex transport planning across the rugged terrain for more than 20,000 spectators and a dispersed set of smaller athlete villages as opposed to the traditional single large Olympian village node. In terms of broadcast, media coverage of the Winter Olympics has itself broken records, with a total of 492 video feed paths including live drone footage, a 40% increase on Paris 2024 less than two years ago. Indeed, the elaborate production was rewarded with over 225 million and more than 22 million TV-only viewers, for the Olympics and Paralympics respectively, nearly 100% more than the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
The 22,000 km² spread of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was an impressive operational feat (Image Source: https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/2026-olympics-winter-milan-cortina-venues-map)
But what happens now that the Winter Games are over? Do the millions of newly inspired winter sports fans go into hibernation in the summer months? And given the ever-growing threat of a warming climate, winter sports federations have been confronted with an existential crisis – do we wait for four years till we see glimpses of the future of winter sports?
The in-between is equally crucial, not only for the IOC and national teams in preparation, but for winter sports to rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. As for opportunities for elite winter athletes to grow their following and inspire new generations, new leagues have been born. The Snow League, a head-to-head style bracket format competition running through the year and dedicated to snowboarding and freeskiing, kickstarted with a $15m raise in late 2025, debuted its first season with a total prize purse of $2m and broadcast across 175 countries.
Halfpipe snowboarding Olympic gold medallist Yuto Totsuka’s run during the finals of the Snow League (Image Source: https://www.snowboard.international/features/yay-or-nay-did-the-snow-league-succeed-at-changing-the-game/?v=7885444af42e)
In fact, the effect of competitions does not stay within the circle of elite professionals, nor alpine regions laden with snow each winter. Inspired by the Winter Games, Mendip, an artificial snow sport slope centre in Somerset, England, saw a 15% increase in bookings for lessons in snowboarding and skiing, many for their first time. In fact, there has been a growing phenomenon of rural estates diversifying revenues through unique experience offers. Luton Hoo Estate on the other side of England has just completed construction of its indoor winter sports centre employing Infinity Piste technology, akin to a horizontally moving treadmill, enabling users to ski by mimicking the experience of snow. Furthermore, new innovations such as the ScoopJet® have been designed to reach the masses as a beginner friendly to the extent that users can enjoy safe yet exciting turns on the carving bob – potentially opening up winter sports to the masses, crucial to winter tourist industries since winter tourists on average are worth 6 times that of summer visitors.
Winter sports is for the masses of the world. Mendip Activity Centre’s artificial snowsport slope is southwest England’s largest outdoor activity centre (Image Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dzpv1xp19o)
The rise of winter sports is not bound to the west. Since the 2015, nearly a quarter of the Chinese population has participated in winter sports, with the number of ice rinks growing tenfold between 2015 and 2022. Such booming popularity validates the digitalisation and modernisation of winter sports, with various ventures founded y winter sports lovers including CheckYeti (a ski lesson / mountain guide booking app), PROVUU (an AR-enhanced snow goggle) and Carv (a real-time in-boot ski performance sensor).
But the Winter Games at Milano Cortina have not only created a new generation of winter sports participants but revealed major challenges awaiting solutions.
With a shrinking pool of consistently snow-laden mountainous regions to host the Games and winter sport leagues from, a widely distributed regional format like that of Milano Cortina across Italy’s alps may be necessary for future games. Yet the scale and ruggedness of the landscape demand state-of-the-art infrastructure to facilitate visitor transport and media broadcast. Thus, geospatial data platforms such as Skiif’s digital trail maps and live slope information and incident reporting, are increasingly key. Likewise, solutions like Mantis Ropeway’s AI cameras for automated ski lift monitoring trained by the peak seasons of winter tourism may come as necessary implementations. Furthermore, professors from the University of Oxford and King’s College London warn of overreliance on a small number of artificial snowmaking companies and its long-term sustainability on fragile Alpine ecosystems will soon present itself as major cost drivers and risks for ski resorts and the natural environments they heavily depend on. Sustainable and effective snowmaking and AI systems that optimise the distribution and production of artificial snow are urgent areas of research and development.
While concerns over the future of the Winter Games grow in the background in the 4-year waiting period till the next Games, the threat of climate change, drive of innovators and passion of new winter sports leagues does not stop. If anything, the Winter Games of 2022 and 2026 only show a sure trend – winter sports are not a niche activity, winter sports are for the masses. From the elite professionals to the Olympic and winter sports federations and the new learner or future winner of the Snow League and the winter sport tourist in the Alps 10 years from now, the future of Winter Sports has its clear trajectory, but it is within our hands to ensure its continued growth – and the Winter Games are just its beginning.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dzpv1xp19o
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/experts-warn-of-mounting-pressures-on-global-ski-industry
https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/2026-olympics-winter-milan-cortina-venues-map
https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/news/every-olympic-record-milano-cortina-2026
https://www.trendingtopics.eu/skinnovation-7-startups-that-bring-alpine-innovation-to-the-peak/
https://www.cla.org.uk/news/a-cla-members-bold-leap-into-snow-sports
https://forbes.swiss/artikel/New-trend-in-winter-sports-investment
https://www.ft.com/content/52857396-7a6b-4224-9002-dd77fb442ef4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cm216n66384o
https://domosno.com/how-ai-is-revolutionising-snowmaking-the-technology-keeping-ski-resorts-alive
Accelerate Ventures
Accelerate Ventures 40-42 Hatton Garden London EC1N 8EB
