Many of the world’s best biathletes swapped skis for skates at an exhibition event in Munich on the weekend, offering a glimpse into the future of winter sports in a warming world.

Biathlon, the mix of cross-country skiing and target shooting that is one of Scandinavia’s most popular winter sports, is one of several disciplines facing a reckoning as climate change and increasingly mild winters pose an existential threat.

Only two weeks after the Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival, which typically signals the end of warmer weather for another year, the Bavarian city held the Loop One festival for the first time on Saturday and Sunday.

Unlike typical biathlon events that take place in freezing conditions against a backdrop of gleaming white snow, the lawns of Munich’s Olympic Park were gr

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