While doing research for her book on how climate change is changing sport, sport ecologist Madeleine Orr visited the town of Iten in the south-west corner of Kenya. A town of only around 56,000 people, it is known as the Home of Champions, owing to its phenomenal athletic success, including 14 men’s and nine women’s Boston Marathon winners since 1991.
Just an hour’s drive away is the rural town of Kaptagat, where some of the fastest distance runners in the world live and train. At 2,400 metres altitude, the rural towns are ideally located for high-altitude training, with the long, unpaved clay roads providing a softer surface for running compared to pavements.
“But with the changing environment, these near-perfect training conditions could be in peril, as drought, extreme heat and, in some parts, floods sweep through East Africa,” said Orr at the launch of her book called Warming up: how climate change is changing sport, hosted by the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) in May. “Droughts can make clay roads harder than pavement, increasing the risk of knee and hip injuries to athletes.
“Dry lands also lead to food shortages and sometimes fires, all of which affects the region’s population, including runners.”
Orr, who is an assistant professor at KPE, shared examples of how climate change is affecting sports in the northern hemisphere, too, where deteriorating ice and snow conditions are not only threatening popular winter activities, like pond hockey and skiing, but winter culture as a whole.
“My father taught me how to skate when I was a two-year-old in Toronto,” said Orr. “My father was taught by his father how to skate when he was a toddler in Montreal.
“My grandchildren may not have that luxury.”
Still, Orr is optimistic that with good will, flexibility and some ingenuity the worst outcomes can be curbed and, in the process, jobs created, injuries avoided and tourism economies boosted. She discussed some of these alternatives on a panel featuring Shireen Ahmed, senior contributor at CBC Sports and instructor of sports journalism and sport media at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Marco Di Buono, president of Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities and vocal advocate for the health and well-being of children and youth, and Alicia Brown, accomplished track athlete and U of T alumna, who is now part of the Hart House's Fitness, Wellness and Recreation team.
Watch a recording of the panel discussion
“We don’t need to lose any athletes to heat stroke,” said Orr. “It’s preventable and coaches should know what to look for. We don’t need to cancel games; we can be flexible with our schedules. The solutions don’t have to be expensive; we just need to be flexible and listen to the athletes - and children.”
Brown competed in Doha, Qatar, in the 2019 World Athletic Championship in extremely hot and humid conditions. To avoid the sweltering heat, the championship spilled over into October and all events were scheduled for the late afternoon or night, including the marathon, which started at midnight. A few years later, she travelled to Germany for a race that ended up being cancelled due to torrential rains, which flooded the track.
“Sport relies on the planet to be healthy and if the planet isn’t healthy, then neither is sport,” said Brown.
Ahmed brought forth the question of how the choices we make, individually and as a society, impact our lives – and the health of the planet. For example, if there are no accessible play or sporting facilities in your community, what do you do? If you can afford to take a few hours out of your day to drive your children from one end of the city to the other for training, you may do that, but think of the emissions you’re releasing into the air. You could also take the public transit, but think of the hours spent. And, what if you have no time to spare, because you have to be at work? Your children may be left behind. So, wouldn’t it be better – for the environment and the children - to equip more communities with accessible sporting and play facilities?
“We need to reframe the ways in which we think about sport,” said di Buono, who’s been helping kids of all abilities play by building 24 inclusive play spaces in communities across the country through the Inclusive Play Project. “We did a survey of 3000 kids who overwhelmingly told us they’d much rather play in their schools than drive around town with their parents or be stuck on public transit.”
“It’s all about connecting the dots,” said Orr, who brought up the example of Pakistan, which was hit by devastating floods in the summer of 2022, forcing much of the country - and sports - to shut down. The floods were attributed to a toxic cocktail of glacier melt and heavy monsoons, both linked to climate change. Ironically, Pakistan barely emits 1 per cent of global emissions.
“Those with fewer privileges and resources are always hit the hardest,” said Orr. “That’s why it’s important for those of us with privilege and resources to show up to these conversations – and that includes athletes, coaches, politicians and thought leaders – because all these issues are related.”
Warming up: how climate change is changing sport is available for purchase at the U of T bookstore.