Sports and climate:because 20% of the nations participating in the Olympics are at risk

How climate change is transforming sport, but above all the Olympic destiny of many athletes just because of their geographical origin.

• Climate changes have important effects on the way sport is experienced.
• From heat waves to floods to rising sea levels, many countries find themselves in critical conditions.
• The risk is that in the future there will be fewer and fewer countries represented at the Olympics.

“By 2030, 20 percent of Olympic nations risk disappearing due to the impact of climate change on sport.”To say it, in Sport Positive summit of 2022, it was Julie Duffus, senior manager for sustainability at the International Olympic Committee (IOC).“I work every day with 206 countries around the world – added Duffus – and many are already experiencing the consequences of the climate crisis in sport”.

As the Paris 2024 Olympics kick off with the aim of minimizing theenvironmental impact and represent an example to follow for all the major sporting events of the future, in many corners of the planet sport is fighting a tough fight against climate change:from the heat that prevents training, to the violent floods that destroy structures and sports centers.There are many situations in which practicing sport can be complex.

What will happen to Kenya's running tradition?

One of the most anticipated athletes at the Paris Olympics is the marathon runner from Kenya Eliud Kipchoge, winner of two gold medals in the last two editions and on the hunt for a historic third success, a feat no one has ever achieved. Kipchoge comes from Kapsisiywa, a small village in the western part of Kenya.Many running champions have come from that area, including fourteen winners of the Boston Marathon and thirteen gold medals at the world athletics championships.

This corner of Kenya is actually called la House of champions.Its straight, unobstructed, high-altitude roads allow athletes to develop unique lung and running skills.

However, this is also an area where 35 percent of people live below the poverty line and in recent years it has been hit violently by heat and drought as well as violent flooding and loss of biodiversity.

All this, in a country without particular sports facilities and where people do not have the opportunity to train indoors, risks turning into an insurmountable obstacle for runners of the new generations who, due to adverse climatic conditions, may not have more opportunities to make their dreams come true.

For this reason, the president of Athletics Kenya (AK), the athletics federation of the African country, Jackson Tuwei, sent a rather worrying message:“If young athletes are hungry, they don't run.If the air quality is bad because it is dusty and smoky, they will not run.If there is no shade because the trees have been cut down and there is no water to drink or shower, they will not run."

To all this we must also add the increased risk of injuries caused by the markedly worsening conditions of paths and routes.

Kenya fears that without intervention from the international community, practicing sport in one's own country could become increasingly complicated, forcing those who can to go abroad, while for everyone else, there simply may not be a future in sport.

The cases of Pakistan and Fiji

Madeleine Orr, founder of the association Sports Ecology, he wrote in his book Warming up:how climate change is changing sport, dedicated precisely to the impacts of climate change on sport, it cites the examples of two countries that are often far from the sports news, but very useful for getting an idea of ​​how adverse climatic conditions can affect sport and the local population.

In the summer of 2022 the Pakistan was hit by unprecedented floods that claimed the lives of nearly thousands of people.The floods were caused by a sudden collapse of the glaciers combined with the presence of uniquely powerful monsoons;two phenomena linked to the climate crisis.

These events destroyed entire sports facilities which have not yet been rebuilt due to lack of funds to do so.The few resources available they were logically intended to distribute humanitarian aid such as healthy food, clean water, shelter and healthcare to the nearly 30 million displaced people.And the time for the reconstruction of stadiums and sports facilities seems far away.This has resulted in the fact that Pakistan now risks losing much of its sporting heritage, especially linked to cricket.

In other corners of the planet, however, such as the Fiji, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, the sport can disappear completely due to of sea level rise, which is literally eating the archipelago.

In those parts, where almost everyone plays rugby, it is customary to train on the beaches, the only spaces where there are areas large enough to do so.With the sea level rising more and more and the beaches becoming increasingly narrow, the inhabitants have the only solution to migrate to more inland areas, where much of the territory is covered by jungles and forests.If not even moving to other islands or other countries.This therefore makes it very complex to build structures suitable for sport.In fact, doing so would mean cutting down hundreds of trees;and therefore, to address one problem, many others would be created.

As in the case of Kenya, the most viable solution for rugby players in Fiji is to leave their state to go and train elsewhere, depriving the many local communities of their sporting soul.

The other nations that risk not being able to dream of the Olympics

Kenya, Pakistan and Fiji are just some of the most obvious examples, but unfortunately they are not the only ones.

The problem ofrising sea levels, according to what the World economic forum, concerns many countries, such as Tonga, Bangladesh, China, New Zealand, India and, of course, Netherlands:nations and states which, from now to the near future, risk having to make important decisions on what use to entrust to increasingly scarce portions of territory and, in all likelihood, sport will pay the price.

Similar discussion also regarding the problem of extreme temperatures and drought:in addition to Kenya, there are numerous African countries and the Mediterranean area where temperatures are constantly increasing, with the consequent difficulties in carrying out correct and healthy sporting practice.States like the Mali, Sudan, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea and Chad they are all considered at risk.

For these Olympics, Paris wanted to send a signal to the world, organizing Games that have as low an environmental impact as possible, trying to demonstrate that it is possible to combine a major event with environmental and climate sustainability.

However, the situation in many parts of the world is critical and in order for sport to continue to be "for everyone" it is necessary to intervene with concrete, targeted, but above all rapid actions.What sport can do, through its champions, is exploit their popularity to raise even greater awareness of governments and public opinion.