With the Paris Olympics now done and dusted and the Paralympics hotting up to a climax, the big question is, could we be seeing the last of big sporting events? After all, the intense heat felt in Paris this year is unlikely to be a freak event. Global warming will see to that. Since the last time the Olympics were held in Paris exactly a hundred years ago, the average temperature in France’s capital has risen by more than 3 degrees Celsius. Europe now has the dubious badge of being the fastest warming continent on the planet. 

The Winter Olympics have already received much attention as being under threat. The escalating climate crisis could mean they increasingly struggle to find host cities with enough snow and ice. Only one of 21 previous Winter Olympics locations would be able to reliably host the Games in future if global greenhouse gas emissions remain on their current trajectory, says a recent study.

What is now becoming increasingly obvious is how much athletes themselves are paying the price for performing in a world that is breaking climate records. 

Dangers to performance, health, and even the fear of heat-related deaths were revealed in a report published earlier this year. It documented growing concerns amongst those in the upper echelons of athletics. Pragnya Mohan, the highest-ever ranked Indian triathlete for example described competing in soaring heat as being “scary” and said how “your body feels like it’s shutting down”. Olympic bronze medal tennis player Marcus Daniell reported how, at the Tokyo Olympics, he felt like the heat could be potentially fatal. 

Uninhabitable

In his foreword to that same report, Lord Seb Coe, World Athletics’ president, warned that “with global temperatures continuing to rise, climate change should increasingly be viewed as an existential threat to sport”. 

Those words are deliberate and sobering. An existential threat. To sport. And thereby to so much else. It’s not only the Olympics that are under threat. Whole countries are too. Lord Coe predicts that by 2060, more than a dozen countries taking part in the Olympics “will no longer be inhabitable”.

Intense rivalry

In the summer of 1980, I was glued to the television watching Seb Coe duel with his arch rival, Steve Ovett at the Moscow Olympics. In those days, as a keen member of my local athletic club, I was excited by the pair and their incredible feats.  They’d been leapfrogging each other as world record holder in the mile. Against the odds, Ovett won the 800-metre gold, with Coe replying with victory in the 1,500 metres. It was the stuff of dreams. Incredible sporting rivalry that fired the imagination and inspired many. 

To hear Coe, more than 40 years on, talking about records of another kind, in global temperature rise, struck home the reality that we all now face. 

The Tokyo Olympics offered an alarming glimpse into the future with temperatures over 34°C and humidity reaching almost 70%. Those Games went on to become “the hottest in history” with conditions described as ‘torturous.’

Climate change has and will continue to increase average environmental temperatures, as well as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The link between fossil fuels and global warming is clear. Eyebrows are increasingly being raised at fossil fuel companies sponsoring sport. 

Former Australia rugby union captain David Pocock is quoted as being amongst those to have called out the developments: “I really think fossil fuel sponsorship is the new cigarette sponsorship, where they are advertising a product that we now know is destroying our home planet and our futures,” he said.

Behind the headlines

What doesn’t get the same headlines or attention is the role of our food, particularly the overconsumption of meat. The business of rearing animals for food has a big part to play in both the problem and the solution to runaway climate change. 

Greenhouse gases from animal farming contribute more to a warming world than the direct emissions from every form of transport combined. Yet statistics show that globally, more people are eating more meat than ever before. So much so that our food alone could trigger catastrophic climate change. Unless we rethink our diets. Which is why much more needs to be done by governments and the food industry to empower consumers to eat in ways that are healthier for both people and the planet. 

Counterproductive 

How ironic then to see the backlash at the Paris Games to organisers’ attempts to deliver ‘a taste of France in a responsible manner’. Central was the pledge to reduce the carbon footprint of the Games by half compared to previous editions. Amongst the measures planned to achieve this goal was doubling the proportion of vegetables and vegetable protein for the 13 million meals served throughout the four-week event. 

Yet, some athletes reportedly complained that there wasn’t enough meat and eggs. 

Speaking as part of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, French Michelin-star Chef, Thierry Marx, described the Games as a unique opportunity to prove that what is good for our health and the planet is also good to eat. 

“With more plants on our plates, as well as more local and seasonal products and greater responsibility throughout the entire supply chain, Paris 2024 isn’t just setting out specifications – it’s presenting several opportunities for us all to seize,” Marx said. 

As the heat continues to rise at future Olympics, seizing those planet-saving opportunities will become paramount. 

Note: This is a version of an article first published in The Scotsman on Friday 6^th September, 2024