With the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics fresh in the public’s memory, many within the snowsports community are grappling with what the future of their sports may look like under climate change. With locations set to become less viable to host winter sports events, many snowsports athletes have turned to climate action to protect what they love.
Episode 8 of the POWcast features two Aussie personalities from the 2026 Games: mogul skier Jackson Harvey and freeskier and commentator Mia “Miff” Rennie. In this show, Protect Our Winters Climate Campaigner Elyse Kochman chats to Jackson and Miff, who are part of POW’s Athlete Alliance, about how intertwined climate change has become in their sports and why they feel it is important to take a stand.
Jackson and Miff begin by talking about how their passion for winter sports developed alongside their love of the alpine environment, why it is important for them to take a stand on climate issues and what changes to the winter season they have experienced in their lifetimes.
Both athletes share behind-the-scenes insight into their training (and how the changing climate is affecting that) and how they were preparing for the games. Jackson speaks about the qualifying process in the lead up to the Olympics and Miff talks about her experience covering the Games for Channel 9.
Jackson and Miff reflect upon how the world of winter sports is grappling with its future under climate change, how the industry talks about it, the important role of athletes as advocates, and what protecting the future of winter sports means to them.
This podcast was created by Elyse Kochman and James Worsfold.
Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay
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