The Olympics through an ESG lens

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Greetings from my new apartment! I can confirm that your well wishes and messages all helped to make my flat move in London as smooth as sustainably sourced vegan butter! Thank you all for reaching out, I really appreciate it.

Now, let’s dive right into it, which is what the Olympic triathletes wished they could have said at Paris’s Seine river, but the water was too polluted to swim in.

That’s right, the men’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics will not go ahead as planned as pollution levels in the Seine remain too high, World Triathlon said in a statement, dealing a blow to organizers and leaving athletes facing more uncertainty.

France has invested some $1.4 billion in new wastewater infrastructure to cut the amount of sewage flowing into the river, and city authorities have announced plans for three swimming sites to open to the public by June next year.

The race was postponed to Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. (0845 GMT), immediately after the women’s event, which is scheduled for 8 a.m. that day. Should levels of bacteria remain too high by Wednesday morning both the men’s and women’s races are likely to be postponed to Friday, the contingency day reserved for the events.

Also on my radar today:

Paris 2024 Olympics – Swimming – Men’s 100m Backstroke – Heats – Paris La Defense Arena, Nanterre, France. Yazan Al Bawwab of Palestine reacts. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

After addressing the environmental concerns at the Olympics, we now turn to the social issues as Palestinian swimmer Yazan Al Bawwab finished third in a 100 meters backstroke heat at the Paris Games.

“I’m very, very happy … to raise my flag, to have time just for Palestine, a lane just for Palestine. I think this is my message of peace. We’re trying to get the world to know that we’re human beings. I can play sports like everybody else,” he told reporters.

Now, why is this a social issue? Human rights fall under the umbrella of the ‘S’ in ESG. The United Nations Human Rights Principles state: “Human rights are universal and inalienable; indivisible; interdependent and interrelated. They are universal because everyone is born with and possesses the same rights, regardless of where they live, their gender or race, or their religious, cultural or ethnic background.”

The twice Olympian spoke of the consequences of conflict. “A lot of people don’t want us to be here. They don’t want to see the flag. They don’t want to hear my country’s name,” he said. “They don’t want me to exist. They want me to leave. But I’m here.“

We continue the focus on the ‘S’ in ESG at the Olympics, with a touch on the rare G – governance. This time around, we look at the question around civil justice in sports as Netherlands beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, a convicted rapist, made his Paris 2024 debut for a game in bright sunshine at the feet of the Eiffel tower on Sunday.

There were boos, and mixed feelings among the crowd. His team, however, was unapologetic about van de Velde taking part in the Olympics, saying “the past is in the past” and that the matter should not be brought up at the Games.

Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in Britain in 2016 for raping a 12-year-old girl two years earlier when he was 19.

He spent 13 months in prison – one year in Britain and one month in the Netherlands – before being freed there after what he did was re-classified under Dutch law as a lesser offense of “committing indecent acts” and his sentence was reduced.

“What is the message to victims? That sporting talent has more value than their dignity,” Alienor Laurent, co-president of French feminist collective “Osez le feminisme!” (Dare to be Feminist) told Reuters.

The case has resonated more widely, including in Britain and the United States, where some women’s rights groups have campaigned against van de Velde’s participation in the Games.

“An athlete convicted of child sexual abuse, no matter in what country, should not be awarded the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games,” said Julie Ann Rivers-Cochran, executive director of The Army of Survivors NGO.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was satisfied with explanations given by the Netherlands Olympic team regarding the participation of van de Velde.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said the committee was not totally comfortable with the situation but that “a crime occurred 10 years ago, a great deal of rehabilitation has taken place and strong safeguarding is in place.”

Rescuers help residents to move to a safer place, at a landslide site after multiple landslides in the hills, in Wayanad, in the southern state of Kerala, India. REUTERS/Stringer

Sylvain Fillipi, managing director and chief technology officer of British motor racing team Envision Racing shares his thoughts on the role of sports in empowering sustainability: 

“It’s the summer of sports. The French Open and the Euros have crowned their winners and the Olympics have begun.

“Thanks to its billions of fans globally, sport has unparalleled power to inspire social change at scale – from tackling racism in football to starting conversations about mental health in professional tennis.

“With extreme weather events including heat waves and flooding already set to impact this summer’s sporting celebrations, now is the time for those with reach and influence in the sector to turn their attention to educating and mobilizing fans to fight the climate crisis. 

“As a relatively new sport, the FIA Formula E World Championship was designed with sustainability at its heart and using the sport’s global platform to drive change.

 “Through our environmental fan platform, we’ve already motivated fans to make over 250,000 pledges to live more sustainably, resulting in a quarter of a million trees being planted.

 “In the race against climate change, we know it’s possible and necessary for sport to lead from the front. This summer its stars, teams and bodies must seize the opportunity to help create a better tomorrow for everyone, today.” 

Breakingviews: Erratic rainfall is one reason the country’s economic growth may slow to 7% this year. Too much and too little H2O affects everything, from cities to power plants to farming. Climate change coupled with weak state capacity is making it worse. Yet it’s an underappreciated problem. Click here to access the story (behind a registration and pay wall).

Sandrine Billiet, Catherine Raney-Norman and Afghan women soccer team athletes appear on a stage during a catwalk show in Paris, France. REUTERS/Yves Herman

In keeping with the Olympics theme, today’s spotlight shines a light on women athletes that took part in a fashion show in Paris to mark gender parity at the Olympics.

The athletes welcomed the Games reaching that milestone but said more work needs to be done to improve working conditions, pay, and visibility of women in sports.

Former and current athletes including beach volleyball gold medallist Natalie Cook, BMX racer Sarah Walker, and U.S. middle-distance runner Athing Mu walked the catwalk in T-shirts with slogans like “Parity Paris” and “I Am”.

Paris 2024 is the first Olympics in which an equal number of men and women are competing overall, but the split still varies widely by country and by sport. Paris is also where women first took part in the Olympics, in 1900, when the 22 participating women accounted for just 2% of the total.

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