Despite Frigid Weather The Snow In Pyeongchang Is Fake
Joe VanderKelen
"Depending on which venue it is  we estimate between 90 and 98 percent of the snow that's there has been machine-made and produced in advance of the games  " Joe VanderKelen  president of SMI   tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.
"Machine-made snow is like one-week or two-week-old natural snow that's been sitting there and takes a while to go into a different grain size  and actually can become a better surface once it's tilled for the athletes "  VanderKelen  says.
Surprisingly  athletes prefer manufactured snow because it is more consistent   he  adds. When preparing the courses  organizers will actually push off natural snow before spreading the fake stuff.
"The racers like a very hard surface that minimizes rutting  so that between the 40 and 60 competitors that might race they're trying to keep that surface as consistent as they can as they carve those gates and those corners "  VanderKelen  says. "So they really like a very hard surface  and they don't like natural snow at all."
"Depending on which venue it is  we estimate between 90 and 98 percent of the snow that's there has been machine-made and produced in advance of the games  "  [TGT] tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.
"Machine-made snow is like one-week or two-week-old natural snow that's been sitting there and takes a while to go into a different grain size  and actually can become a better surface once it's tilled for the athletes  [TGT] says.
Surprisingly  athletes prefer manufactured snow because it is more consistent   he  adds. When preparing the courses  organizers will actually push off natural snow before spreading the fake stuff.
"The racers like a very hard surface that minimizes rutting  so that between the 40 and 60 competitors that might race they're trying to keep that surface as consistent as they can as they carve those gates and those corners  [TGT] says. "So they really like a very hard surface  and they don't like natural snow at all."