Paul Rouse: Is it all downhill for Winter Games in our changing climate? 

What could be more illustrative of the impact of global warming on sport than the fact that the Olympic movement currently has a working group examining the prospect of opening the Winter Olympics to non-snow and non-ice-based sports.

ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT: Snowfall at the Livigno Snow Park, on day 13 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.

It is not difficult at the moment to see the impact of climate change on our sporting lives. There are playing fields all over the island where it would be easier to land a seaplane than hold a match.

The scale of extreme weather events and their frequency are dismissed by some people as falling within the normal oscillations in patterns that have occurred across centuries.