But it comes at a cost: human-made snow is incredibly resource-intensive, requiring massive amounts of energy and water to produce in a climate that’s getting warmer and warmer.
The region surrounding the outdoor Olympic venues is in an extreme drought this winter, but even in normal years, it isn’t particularly suitable for snow sports.
To work around Mother Nature, TechnoAlpin told CNN that it began shipping a full arsenal of snow guns, fan-driven snow generators and cooling towers to Beijing in 2018.
The International Olympic Committee estimated that 49 million gallons of water will be needed to produce snow for The Games, which is a lot when you consider how rapidly the world is running out of freshwater.
The IOC does not face these challenges alone.