Two stories have grabbed the headlines in recent months: the state of our polluted rivers and the Paris Summer Olympic Games. But what’s less reported on are the inextricable links between the two and the risk to health that water pollution causes to athletes. And neither do we hear enough about the huge impact that climate change is already having on athletes and sports-lovers around the world.
We know that tackling the climate-nature crisis intersects with many aspects of our lives including health, food security, transport and the economy but too seldom do we hear about it interacting with sport. Whether it’s grassroots players being hampered by local flooded pitches or professional tournaments like the Tour de France, which has seen cyclists suffering from extreme heat stroke, such as French cyclist Alexis Vuillermoz who had ro be taken to hospital after his race as temperatures soared. From beginners to pro, the climate crisis is a massive threat to all of our ability to enjoy and play the sports we love.
So as you sit down to watch the rest of the games, and eagerly await Team GB’s final medal count, take a read of this blog to find out more.
The real-world impacts of river pollution on sport did make headlines this year when the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race organisers warned against rowing crews entering the water due to the risk of E-Coli caused by sewage overflow. Despite their words of caution, the E-Coli led to prominent members of the Oxford Rowing Team falling sick and losing the race. One rower, Leonard Jenkins, stated afterwards that: “It would have been ideal to not have so much poo in the water!”.
Athletes were performing in temperatures exceeding 34ºC and were warned that this could be the “hottest Games on record.” And the irony is that the French capital was host of COP21 in 2015 where the historic Paris Agreement was made to limit global heating to below 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels in order to protect humanity from the worst impacts of climate change, which we are disastrously off track from achieving. Olympic race walker, Rhydian Cowley stated: “We already know that extreme heat is a silent killer among the general population, and that even with prior preparation and intervention, it can still be risky for athletes to compete in. So, absolutely, I’m concerned that extreme heat in competition could threaten the lives of athletes.”
In the last few weeks many of us have been captivated by the sporting spectacle of the summer Olympic games, where the same issues have been impacting athletes spending time in the water. Triathletes such as Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk vomited 10 times after swimming in the River Seine during his race. And those who went to France to watch, will know just how hot it has been in Paris, and Mislawchuk stated that the “Scoulding” temperatures, alongside ongoing concerns about river pollution, were a contributing factor to his bout of illness.
The warning signs of inaction have been present across society but also in sport for many years with extreme conditions not unique to Paris. The Tokyo Summer Olympic games in 2021 saw athletes faint during sporting events and multiple athletes retired midway through competition due to heat exhaustion. In a now well-documented case, tennis player Daniil Medvedev, as he kept playing in extreme heat, stated to the umpire: “I’m a fighter, I will finish the match, but I can die… If I die, is the International Tennis Federation going to take responsibility?” This statement might sound dramatic but in reality, there have been, and there continues to be, warnings of risk to life and the heat wave in France this year resulted in more than 14,000 excess deaths.
And it’s not just the summer olympics. The extreme weather conditions in Qatar led, for the first time in history, to the football World Cup tournament taking place in winter due to the risk from high temperatures. But the danger is not just for players on the pitch, much worse than this, the Qatar World Cup also made headlines as migrant workers were dying due to horrific working conditions in heat that frequently exceeded 40ºC. Despite moving the tournament to winter months Qatar still invested huge amounts into air conditioning in the open air stadiums both for cooling the pitch but also for reducing temperatures for spectators. Despite moving the tournament to mid-winter, the World Cup still saw temperatures reaching over 30 degrees.
Qatar’s winter of high humidity and 30º temperatures may feel a long way away from conditions here in the UK, but that hasn’t stopped the climate crisis being felt at all levels of sport here, with the Football Association, estimating that about 120,000 games are lost every season due to adverse conditions. Research from the Climate Coalition in 2021 found that around 62,500 amateur football matches were being cancelled or delayed through extreme weather. The severity of the impacts of climate-related risk on football is highlighted in the documentary, Play On, which outlines the severity of the risks to the beautiful game if we don’t act: “If we want to play on, we need something to be done…. Now” The 2023 report Game Changer II: The impact of climate change on sports in the UK states that by 2050, 39 of the 92 stadiums in the top four leagues of English football will be at risk, caused by extreme rainfall, drought, flooding, and windstorms.
Team GB Cyclist and former Chairman of Sports England Chris Boardman outlined the severity of the situation stating “Whether it’s flooded pitches, water quality or extreme heat, few things have such an ability to depress physical activity nor widen equality of access than a heating world.”
The urgency is not only affecting the conditions but always changing the behaviour and choices made by athletes like Innes Fitzgerald, who declined the opportunity to compete for British Athletics at the World XC Championships due to the emissions involved in travel stating it was “the least I can do is voice my solidarity with those suffering on the front line of climate breakdown,”. This earned Innes the Young Athlete of the Year award at the BBC Green Sport Awards 2023.
This urgency and the calls from athletes across the sporting world are not going unheard however with organisations like Champions for Earth, BBC Green Sports Awards and the IOC hosting Climate Action awards that celebrate athletes who excel in advocating for climate action and take steps to reduce the environmental impact of sports.
Increasingly athletes are speaking out and at Zero Hour, we are incredibly proud that British Rowing and British Triathlon have just announced their support for the Climate and Nature Bill. They now join 900 other organisations from across sport, industry, nature, and farming who are calling for the science-led CAN Bill to be introduced by the government so that the UK does its fair share to get climate and nature crises under control.
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