“Winter sporting communities and athletes alike are seeing first-hand the impact of climate change on winter sport,” said Ashley Walden, Adirondack Sports Council executive director, the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games’ Organizing Committee. “It’s an incredible honor that so many experts and industry leaders have agreed to join us in Lake Placid this winter to educate and advocate on this critical topic.”

Author, environmentalist, journalist and activist Bill McKibben, Nathan Chen, the reigning men’s Olympic figure skating gold medalist, and national wilderness activist Aaron Mair headline the list of speakers at the conference. Topics will include alternative energy, farming, forestry, food activism, the science of ice and snow and diversity in the outdoors.

McKibben, called “probably America’s most important environmentalist” by the Boston Globe, is the co-founder and senior advisor at 350.org, the first planetwide, grassroots climate change movement. He is a distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College who has organized 20,000 rallies worldwide, led the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline and launched the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Last February, Chen became just the seventh American figure skater to capture Olympic gold in the men’s individual competition. He is currently attending Yale University, where he’s majoring in statistics and data science. In 2021, he joined Team Panasonic, and now promotes the “Panasonic Green Impact” initiative which strives to achieve carbon neutrality together with society, by creating impacts from actions that reduce CO2 emissions.

Mair currently serves as the Adirondack Wilderness campaign director for the Adirondack Council. He was the 57th president of the Sierra Club. Mair also founded Albany’s Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation and Albany’s W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center.

Other speakers will include athlete-activists and filmmakers from Protect our Winters, Kitty Calhoun and Graham Zimmerman; Earthday.org president Kathleen Rogers; author Kristin Kimball; and Players for the Planet co-founder Chris Dickerson.

Climate and environmental experts from state agencies, including the state Olympic Regional Development Authority, will discuss New York’s efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainable infrastructure that will continue to support winter sports.

Academic experts and researchers from Paul Smith’s College, Clarkson University and Texas A&M University, will be joined by representatives from Canadian universities Wilfrid Laurier and the University of Waterloo. Additional speakers and panelists will be added.

Other events during conference week include the special “A Night at the Wild Center” in Tupper Lake on Saturday, Jan. 14, and a film festival Sunday, Jan. 15 that will showcase short films on sports and the environment.

Reservations are now being accepted by visiting the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter World University Games website at www.lakeplacid2023.com/save-winter.