The impact of global warming on the future of long-distance running and athletics

Rising temperatures and a warmer earth are becoming a cause of concern for World Athletics as it puts endurance athletes at risk.

Global warming is inevitably going to end up taking a toll on sports as we know it. Rising temperatures with every passing year as well as harsher climates are making lives more difficult for long-distance runners and endurance athletes. Given the fact that the summer Olympics, the World Championships as well as the major international tournaments are held in the summer months between June and August, means that a decision needs to be taken sooner rather than later.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe spoke about the same issue on Friday and said that long-distance events that push endurance athletes to their limits could end up getting “decoupled” from major championships due to climate change as concerns mount about competitor welfare in the soaring heat.

This issue was clearly visible during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as well. Several athletes ranging from various disciplines like sprinting and long distance running to javelin throw and shot put were found struggling in the hot and humid conditions of Japan.

In fact, ancitipating the same, organisers had decided to move the race walk events and two marathons 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of Tokyo to Sapporo in the hopes of finding relief due to cooler weather. That, however, did not come to fruition either as the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan also dealt with a heatwave.

“It’s a really important question because the fact is we now live in a world that is changing very fast, and climate change is in so many ways impacting on things that we do,” Coe said ahead of the World Cross-Country Championships in Australia on Saturday.

“I think we’re going to have to look at the calendar in a very different way in the years to come. I can’t see how any of the immediate (heat) challenges are going to be resolved in the foreseeable future.”

Coe also cited the example of the US track and field trials that were held several years ago in Oregon. They had to reschedule the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m events because of unprecedented rising temperatures in June -- a month when it is usually milder in the US.

“Had the (2024) Paris Olympic Games been last summer or the summer before, you would have been in exactly the same situation,” he said.

“So I think we are going to have to spend a great deal of time thinking about what the calendar looks like and maybe... uncoupling some of the tougher endurance events from our world championships in the summer months.”