Paris Olympics promote sustainability for good reason: Climate change is putting athletes and their sports at risk
By Become an author,
2024-07-24
Europe is in the midst of a heat wave, and while Olympic athletes in Paris for the 2024 Summer Games might be spared the worst of it, the weather will still be hot.
As global temperatures have risen, major sporting events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup have had to adapt to high heat and extreme storms to keep athletes and fans safe and allow the games to go on.
Olympic organizers have moved events such as marathons to early mornings and even to cooler cities. FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, pushed the 2022 Men’s World Cup back from its usual time in June to late November so it could be held in Qatar.
The heat risks and the environmental impact of major sporting events have led some people to question whether these events should be held at all. But as someone who studies sport management and sustainability in an area I coined “sport ecology,” I believe that radical approach misses the benefits, including the Olympics’ ability to promote sustainable actions to the public worldwide.
How rising global heat affects the Olympics
Sports have good reason for caring about sustainability: Climate change can put athletes’ and fans’ health at risk and even put the future of some sports in doubt.
Winter sports face the greatest threats from climate change as temperatures rise and precipitation changes, dramatically shortening winter sports seasons in many areas. In 2022, the Beijing Winter Games had to artificially create snow so it could have ski runs at all. The International Olympic Committee has delayed its decision to select Winter Games host cities for 2030 and beyond because of the uncertainty of winter sports.
Organizers of the Tokyo Summer Games, held amid a fierce heat wave in 2021, had preemptively moved the marathon to Sapporo, more than 500 miles north of Tokyo, so athletes could run in cooler weather. They also delayed competitions during the Games to avoid extreme heat and excessive rain.
Olympic progress toward sustainability
Any large event like the Olympics can produce vast carbon emissions through its construction, transportation needs and energy use.
That impact, and the risks it creates for sports and their athletes, are why sustainability has been a pillar of the Olympic charter since 1996 and is a focus of its planning for the future. In 2012, the London Olympics pioneered a new international certification standard, ISO2012, which provides guidelines for any large event to make more sustainable choices, from construction to catering.
The 2024 Paris Games, from July 26 to Aug. 11, and Paralympic Games, Aug. 28 to Sept. 8, are certified to the latest standard, and organizers are taking many steps to reduce their climate impact.
All furniture and temporary buildings approved for the Games also must have a contractually guaranteed second life, rather than going into a landfill. All of the competition venues are on public transportation, allowing for fewer vehicles in the streets. Even the food is targeted for a 50% emissions cut compared with the average meal by increasing the use of plant-based foods. The Paralympics will use the same venues and housing in the weeks that follow.
In essence, the Olympic Games, the largest sporting event in the world, is a sport sustainability world’s fair. It highlights what is possible for a sporting event through collaborations with international corporations to reduce its environmental impact. And it influences others to follow suit, whether that is other sporting events, leagues and federations or spectators from around the world.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0