World Athletics president Sebastian Coe warned that the Olympics calendar may need restructuring due to climate change.
Coe highlighted challenges faced during World Athletics Championship in Tokyo in 2025, where temperatures soared above 30°C.
He suggested rescheduling events like marathons to protect athletes from hazardous conditions.
Olympics venues are not spared from the onslaught of global warming and people engaged in endurance-based sports have it worst while competing in extreme heat and high humidity. Such persisitent conditions may force the Olympics calender to be re-engineered, said Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics.
Coe, a former athlete who won multiple Olympic medals in mid-distance running, noted that many athletes in the recently concluded World Athletics Championship held in Tokyo had to compete in unhealthy conditions, with temperatures higher than 30°C and 90 per cent humidity.
He cited a 2023 report that showed 75 per cent of athletes perceive a threat from climate change. “I can't see beyond the inevitability of having to collectively, as Olympic sports and probably the Olympic movement, really re-engineering what the international calendar looks like,” the 68-year-old told the news outlet BBC.
The report he referred to published by World Athletics also showed that the share of athletes feeling a negative impact of climate change increased with time. During the previous survey in 2022, 72 per cent athletes had said climate change had negatively affected the sport and 66 per cent reported a direct impact.
Coe suggested that events like the marathon might have to be scheduled at a different time of the year during Olympics or other championships to ensure athletes are not exposed to hazardous conditions in the future.
Finding a comfortable period for each event may be challenging, he acknowledged, because even autumn and early winter months are becoming hot in many cities.
These and other challenges such as branding will have to be overcome eventually to ensure the integrity of the sport and safety of athletes are not compromised, Coe told BBC.