BLOG: A Winter Olympics Without Water

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

I don't know about you, but I love the Olympics. My family has been totally into it for the past week, tuning in to sports I know nothing about but am captivated by nonetheless. These athletes make death-defying sports look easy. 

Last night we were watching figure skating and something struck me - every single event in the Winter Olympics relies on water. Water for the snow, water for the ice. There's no skiing without snow, there's no speed skating without ice. There's no Winter Olympics without water.

No water means no ice, and no ice means no curling,
which is perhaps my new favorite obscure sport to watch.

Water is an integral part of many recreational activities - boating, swimming, skiing. And groundwater helps feed surface water supplies for many of these (including one of my favorites - canoeing down the scenic Niobrara River in North Central Nebraska).

So as you tune into the Olympics over the next several days, think about the amazingness that is water. It freezes so a figure skater can glide gracefully over ice. It becomes snow and a snowboarder performs gravity-defying twists. Water for recreation brings enjoyment to all of our lives, even if we can only imagine competing in the Olympics.