Photo/Illutration Aiko Uemura (Photo by Kosuke Inagaki)

HAKUBA, Nagano Prefecture--Former world champion mogul skier Aiko Uemura decided to take action to protect the Earth where the snow falls when she retired from competition more than a decade ago. 

Today, she talks about the importance of respecting the blessing of nature at events and lectures.

Uemura also provided illustrations for a picture book titled "Yuki Yuki Daisuki" (Snow, snow, I love it a lot), which was published in 2022. It is a story about a girl who thinks what she can do to keep playing with what she loves best: snow.

"I had never heard of words like sudden downpours or linear rainbands before," said Uemura, 45. There is also an increasing number of natural disasters such as large-scale wildfires." 

That is why Uemura believes she can share the sense of threat over rising global temperatures with those who don't participate in winter sports.

"I think the Earth won't be an easy planet to live on for anyone if it doesn't snow," she said.

Two years ago, Uemura moved back to Hakuba, one of the most popular winter destinations in Japan, which is known for its powder snow.

"It's cool in the morning and evening, but it gets quite hot during the day. Looking back, there was hardly any day when the highest temperature was over 30 degrees," she recalled.

It has become a norm for Uemura in the recent summer months to acutely feel the impact of global warming even in Hakuba, her hometown for which she serves as a tourism ambassador.

She competed in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics when she was a third-year student at Hakuba Senior High School.

The ski resort where the event was held was closed five years ago due to a lack of snow and other conditions.

"The snow was hard and firm when the Olympics were held," she said. "I feel nostalgic thinking about skiing under the blue sky."

Uemura had joined a training camp in a glaciered area in Switzerland every fall during her competitive years.

But during the latter half of her career, she felt the glacier was thinner than when she was in her teens.

In fact, records show that Switzerland's glaciers lost almost half their volume in the past 50 years.

Uemura won a spot on the Japanese national team and competed in five Olympics. She retired after participating in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

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