Major sporting events have a serious impact on the environment. How can we make the Olympic Games more sustainable?

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were supposed to start on July 24, but due to Covid, they have been rescheduled for the summer of 2021. A historic decision, only three times the games were not held: in Berlin in 1916, in Tokyo in 1940 and in London in 1944, again due to the World War. Meanwhile, preparations are underway in Cortina d'Ampezzo for the 2026 winter season, and perhaps this break should lead to reflection on the environmental impact of events of this magnitude.

The spirit that guides the Olympic Games is to be commended, but it must be remembered that events of this magnitude are also huge opportunities to stimulate the economy of the host country. Unfortunately, the economic side often takes precedence over sustainability and environmental protection, turning what should be a celebration of the healthy values of sport into a celebration of rampant consumption and boundless overbuilding. Exciting and popular sports at the Summer Olympics are described on this resource - saebyavis.dk/2022/06/29/spaendende-og-populaere-sportsgrene-i-sommer-ol/

Dirty Olympics

History is full of negative examples, especially in recent years. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia were a prime example of this problem. What Russia thought should have been a zero-impact game turned out to be an environmental disaster. Huge construction projects had very little sustainability, on the contrary, cases of illegal dumping of building materials, the use of animal migration areas as construction zones, the dumping of waste into water bodies and, in general, a drop in the quality of life of all residents of the region are widespread.

Brazil is no exception either. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro were an environmental disaster, in particular with regard to city water, which was already heavily polluted before the Olympics and posed a real health hazard during the competition. The concentration of viruses and bacteria in watercourses and in the sea was so high that, according to a study, it was enough to swallow three teaspoons to become seriously ill.

Winter Olympics 2026 in Cortina

In Cortina d'Ampezzo, the construction of new ski lifts and ski slopes, the expansion of existing ones, the construction of roads and car parks to facilitate access to the areas are already underway and cause a lot of concern, as highlighted in a CAI press release. “Our commitment,” General President Vincenzo Torti explains in a press release, “will be to use every opportunity, with the help of our members present in the area, to monitor what is happening and comply with the rules and permits; but even more so to emphasize that the future of the mountains is not about the destruction of beauty and the unsustainable overload of ski lifts and the multiplication of access concessions.” Fears, these

Tokyo 2020 1: a sustainable Olympics?

Postponed to 2021, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics promise, at least on paper, to put sustainability first. We do not know if these promises will be kept, but we know how Japan intends to fulfill this promise.

Starting with the little things, the gold, silver and bronze medals will be made from electronic waste, with uniforms made from recycled plastic. Projects include the construction of roads made from recycled materials that can absorb water for reuse, the construction of buildings will be preferred to the use of sustainable wood, and the buildings that will house athletes and their staff will be equipped with environmentally friendly recycled cardboard beds and recycled polyethylene mattresses that can be recycled again after the games are over.

Now that the games have been postponed, Japan will have an extra year to try to address sustainability in the global event.
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