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It is a terrifying prospect to witness the direction things are heading, and how rapidly the climate is deteriorating around us, says Katie Rood, a striker for New Zealand’s football team.
Due to inaction on climate change and the continued rate of fossil fuel use, the world continues to get warmer and stay warmer for longer.
Leading athletes are warning that intense heat at the Paris Olympics in July-August 2024 could lead to competitors collapsing and, in worst-case scenarios, dying during the Games.
A recent report, titled “Rings of Fire: Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics” further contextualizes the pattern of increased temperatures in France and the Paris area since the city last hosted the Olympic Games 100 years ago.
Eleven Olympians, including winners of five World Championships and six Olympic medals, have come together with climate scientists and leading heat physiologists from the University of Portsmouth to unpack the serious threat extreme heat poses for athletes in the report.
The British Association for Sustainable Sport (BASIS), a British non-profit sustainability sports hub, and FrontRunners produced the study. It underscores the heightened risk of extreme heat during the Paris Olympics, especially considering the significant rise in the region’s temperatures since the city last hosted the Games a century ago.
“For athletes, from smaller performance-impacting issues like sleep disruption and last-minute changes to event timings, to exacerbated health impacts and heat-related stress and injury, the consequences can be varied and wide-ranging. With global temperatures continuing to rise, climate change should increasingly be viewed as an existential threat to sport,” says Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics and four-time Olympic medallist.
According to a research report published in the IOPscience journal, climate change from human activities doubled the likelihood of that heatwave and increased the risk of heat-related mortality in central Paris by 70 per cent.
The 2020 Tokyo Games became known as the "hottest in history," with temperatures exceeding 34°C and humidity reaching nearly 70 per cent, leading to severe health risks for competitors.
The Paris Games have the potential to surpass that, with climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels contributing to record heat streaks during the past months.
2023 was the hottest year on record, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, and 2024 has continued this streak. April 2024 was warmer globally than any previous April in the record books, said experts at Copernicus.
The Rings of Fire report discusses the deadly heatwave in France in 2003 – which killed over 14,000 people – and subsequent years of record-breaking temperatures, exceeding 42°C.
Pragnya Mohan, the highest-ranking triathlete in Indian history, describes being exposed to “scary” dangers “that can be fatal” as “your body feels like it’s shutting down” and recounts how she can no longer train in her home country because of the heat.
Japanese race walker and 2019 World Champion Yusuke Suzuki explains how the enduring consequences of heat illness derailed his Tokyo Olympic dreams and took a profound personal and professional toll, including on his physical and mental health.
The report has five recommendations for sporting authorities, including smart scheduling to avoid heat extremes, keeping athletes and fans safe with better rehydration and cooling plans, empowering athletes to speak out on climate change, boosting collaboration between sporting bodies and athletes on climate awareness campaigns, and reassessing fossil fuel sponsorship in sport.
