Sport has a climate problem - whether it wants to accept it or not

12 December 2025

After the most pivotal two hours, nine minutes and forty-eight seconds of marathon running to define the gruelling 2025 season for both men, it came down to a photo-finish. Amanal Petros collapsed to the ground, his heart pounding like never before. A few moments prior, he had been checking his shoulder for any flashes of Tanzanian blue, as Alphonce Felix Simbu also made one final charge with heavy legs for a blue finish ribbon that could change either man’s life. Tokyo’s National Stadium had never witnessed such desperation from two men. Simbu had been behind the entire home-straight at the end of a brutal race of attrition - he was seemingly set for silver - but sent the Japanese crowd into a reverberant frenzy of disbelief as he pulled off the comeback of his running career to take the gold - the first in his nation’s history - in a marathon decided by millimetres. 

After the most pivotal two hours, nine minutes and forty-eight seconds of marathon running to define the gruelling 2025 season for both men, it came down to a photo-finish. Amanal Petros collapsed to the ground, his heart pounding like never before. A few moments prior, he had been checking his shoulder for any flashes of Tanzanian blue, as Alphonce Felix Simbu also made one final charge with heavy legs for a blue finish ribbon that could change either man’s life. Tokyo’s National Stadium had never witnessed such desperation from two men. Simbu had been behind the entire home-straight at the end of a brutal race of attrition - he was seemingly set for silver - but sent the Japanese crowd into a reverberant frenzy of disbelief as he pulled off the comeback of his running career to take the gold - the first in his nation’s history - in a marathon decided by millimetres.

It was a moment that defied all logic - a potent reminder of why we watch sport. However, in spite of the dramatic, exhilarating finale, the Men’s Marathon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September was overshadowed by the looming threat of extreme heat, as the Japanese capital’s heat index - or ‘feels like’ temperature - soared perilously high, into the mid-40 degrees Celsius. This year, the country experienced its hottest ever summer since records began in 1898, and Tokyo in particular felt the punishing effects of climate change, with temperatures around 2.36C higher than average.1

World Athletics, the organisation that runs the biennial world championships, took the decision to move the start time of road race events - including the men’s and women’s marathons - to 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to put "the highest priority" on athlete safety, in light of what were "expected elevated heat conditions that could pose a health and safety risk". Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, told the BBC in September that events such as the marathon may need to be held separately, and at a different time of the year, to protect athletes from unsafe conditions in the future. The 68-year old added that "governments haven't really stepped up to the plate" on the issue, and that "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.”2

As Lord Coe suggested, athletics isn’t the only sport being affected by the impacts of climate change. In fact, it’s increasingly becoming a factor and major talking point in almost all sports being played across the globe, and the issue is only getting worse - the people in charge are smart enough to know that. 

But is sport willing to evolve to survive?

The planet is heating up. Since the pre-industrial era, global surface air temperature has increased by between 1.3°C and 1.4° C, as a result of human activities that involve the combustion of fossil fuels, contributing to the greenhouse effect that causes global warming.3 In addition to generally making the planet hotter, this has led to more frequent cases of extreme weather (for example, floods) across the globe, as well as the global mean sea level having risen by about 21–24 centimeters since 1880.4 Sport has felt the impact of these changes for decades - but only in recent years have they become more drastic and conspicuous.

As one of the toughest sports (both physically and mentally) in the world, tennis has witnessed the impact that increased heat and humidity can have on elite performance to a very pronounced extent in recent times. At the men’s Shanghai Masters 1000 event (one rung below a Grand Slam such as Wimbledon) at the start of October, world No. 2 Jannik Sinner was forced to retire from his round of 32 match against world No. 29 Tallon Griekspoor due to extreme, almost debilitating cramps - and the 4-time major champion wasn’t the only one to feel the heat in China, as several male and female players across events in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan were forced to retire as a result of oppressive heat and humidity.

For a sport that spends much of the year chasing the sun, this is becoming an increasingly prevalent and problematic theme in tennis, making the sport almost painful to watch at times as performers visibly suffer on the court. Players are starting to speak out, most explicitly Danish world No. 11 Holger Rune, who bluntly protested to an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament supervisor in Shanghai: “Why doesn’t the ATP have a heat rule? You want a player to die on the court?”. However, spectators have also been affected by the stifling conditions at tournaments including Wimbledon, leading to breaks in play as the affected fans received medical attention.

Cricket is another sport played in hot climates - think summertime in Australia, South Africa, India and so on - which have now become even more severe as a result of global warming. Playing surfaces are being made more unpredictable and damaged as extreme heat and water shortages can lead to cracks and difficulties in maintaining ground conditions. As severe flooding also becomes more common across the globe, these bone-dry pitches will become waterlogged more easily, rendering them unplayable.

Several matches at the elite level have been left unfinished due to factors like extreme heat, heavy rain, and air pollution (with player safety taking priority), which has ramifications for the rest of the sporting calendar, and ultimately causes financial instability for both clubs and players. At the grassroots level, climate-related disruptions discourage and inhibit participation, particularly for young players, furthering a sense of uncertainty about the sport’s future.

However, some in cricket view the circumstances as an opportunity for innovation and development, both with regards to a more concerted effort to improve facilities, for example, enhanced drainage systems, as well as a greater focus on player welfare.

The world’s most followed sport, football, has also been affected by sweltering heat, with perhaps the most high-profile example being at the inaugural summer 2025 Club World Cup. German side Borussia Dortmund posted on social media during one of their matches that their ‘subs watched the first half from inside the locker room to avoid the blazing sun - never seen that before, but in this heat, it absolutely makes sense.” - referencing the over-30C heat as their team played at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium. Atletico Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente described ‘impossible, terribly hot’ conditions, and how his ‘toenails were hurting; I couldn’t slow down or speed up. It was unbelievable.”

Perhaps one of the most worrying and absurd elements when considering the impacts of climate change is the fact that, elite performers in sports such as tennis, cricket and athletics are literally the best-trained, prepared and accustomed people to playing sport at high intensities in warm weather - it is literally their job, so if anyone should be able to handle these conditions, it would be them. And yet, the temperatures and humidities they’re forced to compete in are at times too extreme, even for them.

Sport is a huge business across the globe, with industry revenues at $2.65 trillion according to the Best-Howard model.5 Therefore, sport is also a reflection of the wider societal and governmental attitude to climate change, which is seemingly a willingness (on the whole) to admit that climate change is a problem and that ‘something has to be done’ about it, but an absence of responsibility as well as a clear lack of willingness to make the short-term sacrifices that could lead to actual change to improve the situation. Whether that’s an intrinsic human flaw, or just what is accepted as ‘good enough’ and for now the easiest option in the current climate (in both senses of the word), it is certainly a stumbling block for progress - and will continue to be as the situation only worsens.

Closer to home, a report on climate change commissioned by World Rugby in 2024 found that Gloucester’s Kingsholm stadium is at risk of ‘marine submersion’ as a direct consequence of global warming, as well as more extreme weather patterns, such as severe flooding.6

Grassroots and school-level sport is also being affected. At the Crypt, PE teachers have noticed pitches becoming more frequently waterlogged in recent years, for the same reasons as those cited by the World Rugby report, however extreme summer weather has also had a significant impact - scorching conditions have also led to the formation of deep cracks in playing surfaces, prompting the school to receive specialist consultation in 2025.

In fairness, some efforts are being made to adapt and make sport more sustainable, out of both necessity and initiative. For example, to return to tennis, the Australian Open has reduced the impact of the extreme Melbourne summer heat by installing retractable roofs and air conditioning onto the major show courts, as well as implementing an extreme heat policy involving breaks in play if certain temperatures are reached, protecting players from suffocating conditions. The ATP has an environmental sustainability strategy - as have other sporting governing organisations, such as the Premier League - as well as a carbon tracker program that allows players who choose to use it to offset the emissions they produce through travelling to and playing tournaments. 

However, real change requires something to give - somebody to make a sacrifice. At the moment, with so many financial players at the table in every sport wanting ever-more profit in the short term - which has cultivated a current state of inertia on the meaningful action front - that seems unlikely.

Sources: (all online)

1 BBC Sport, Is it too hot at Tokyo World Athletics Championships?

2 BBC Sport, New calendar likely because of climate change - Coe

3 Copernicus, Climate indicators: temperature

4 Climate.gov, Climate Change: Global Sea Level

5 GIS Sport, The true size of the global sports industry

6 BBC Sport, Kingsholm Stadium ‘at flood risk from climate change’