With major sporting events such as the Euros, Wimbledon, and Copa América having recently concluded this summer, there’s a palpable sense of sport in the air. As the world tunes in to the Olympics 2024, it is an opportune moment to examine the sustainability of this edition and explore how the sports landscape is intertwined with sustainability considerations more broadly.

A Sustainable Olympics?

The media has hailed the Paris 2024 Games as potentially the greenest Olympics in history. Paris has pledged to halve the carbon footprint of the event compared to the average of previous summer games, aiming for emissions capped at around 1.75 million tonnes of CO2. This ambitious target involves numerous measures designed to minimise environmental impact.

Instead of constructing new venues, 95% of the Games will be held in existing buildings or temporary infrastructures. The only new venue is solar-powered, built with bio-based materials, and incorporates recycled components. In the Athletes’ Village, mattresses are made from recycled fishing nets, and bed bases are crafted from reinforced cardboard. For biodiversity, rooftops house enclosures for insects and birds, and nearly 9,000 trees have been planted to attract different species. Post-Games, the 2,800 Olympic apartments will be converted into homes.

Furthermore, the organisers have calculated the event’s “material footprint,” detailing the resources required for every aspect of the Games, from spectator seating to tents, aiming to control their life cycle before, during, and after the event. Despite these initiatives, achieving net-zero emissions remains challenging. Activists argue that Olympic host cities will inevitably cause substantial environmental issues due to the sheer scale of the event. Paris, for instance, faces controversies such as high E. coli levels in the Seine. Despite efforts since 2015 to reduce the level of pollution and enable swimming, the Olympic triathlon event was postponed during the Games due to continued health risks. Academic and Author, Jules Boykoff said: “To be sure, this summer’s Paris Olympics have made significant sustainability strides. But their earnest efforts have raised a broader question: Can the Olympics truly be an environmentally sustainable event?”

Olympic Uniforms

Sustainability extends somewhat to the uniforms worn by athletes. Teams from Portugal, Slovakia, and The Netherlands will wear skatewear from Brazilian brand Cariuma, made from recycled plastic bottles. Team Japan’s uniforms from Asics also include recycled materials, reducing emissions by approximately 34% compared to Asics kits at previous Games.

LVMH, the lead sponsor of the event, has designed outfits for medal bearers using upcycled textile offcuts. These garments are produced locally in France, often in collaboration with social enterprises supporting refugee artisans.

At the opening ceremony, Team USA showcased Ralph Lauren uniforms featuring 100% recycled cotton polo shirts. Team Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) collaborated with Far Eastern New Century (FENC), New Wide, and Junmay for their uniforms. FENC provided carbon-captured polyester, New Wide developed cooling fabric, and Junmay designed labels with ‘sustainable yarns’. Team Ireland wore LW Pearl formal wear by Laura Weber, featuring ECO-Hybrid taffeta from recycled T-shirts and PET bottles.

However, the overall sustainability of the Olympic uniforms remains inadequate, and the overuse of synthetic materials is at odds with the sustainability ambitions of this year’s Games, particularly poignant following the publication of the ‘Beat the Heat’ document advising athletes how to avoid heat stress.

Merchandise Culture

As reported in the New York Times, Olympic athletes are receiving substantial amounts of merch and sponsored garments, creating an influx of unboxing and haul videos on TikTok. This culture of producing different kits and merchandise for each sporting event is inherently unsustainable and speaks to broader issues in the fashion industry around overproduction, overconsumption, and the insatiable desire for newness.

Sporting events generate vast amounts of merchandise, much of which goes to waste when teams lose. For example, after the 2007 Super Bowl, over 15,000 shirts proclaiming a Chicago Bears victory were discarded following their loss. Fashion is widely acknowledged as an industry that fuels social and environmental harms, yet the impact of fashion from sporting events remains a largely disregarded area of discourse. In 2023, freelance writer and editor, Odessa Paloma Parker, said: “Part of my supposition comes from knowing that fashion’s reputation as an allegedly protective domain for women and members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community makes it an easy target for undue scrutiny in the distressingly bigoted world we live in. It’s also seen as frivolous — by many people for multiple reasons — despite what a lot of us know about its ability to help us manifest our inner selves to the world or unite us by community or subculture.”

The Rise in Activewear Aesthetics

The hype of the Olympic Games and other large-scale sporting events are contributing to a boom in sportswear aesthetics more broadly. Marathons have been dubbed the new ‘fashion weeks’ for runners, with participants showcasing carefully curated race looks. This extends beyond marathons to people investing in copious amounts of new sportswear for weekly run clubs and fitness classes. However, the demand for activewear, often made from synthetic materials like elastane and polyester, poses environmental challenges. Polyester is made from oil, it is energy intensive, and its sheer quantity contributes significantly to today’s global waste problem. In addition, it can end up in the natural environment in the shape of “microplastics” or small plastic particles that may pose a high risk to human and marine health.

Globally, between 200,000 and 500,000 tonnes of synthetic fibres from textiles are released into the marine environment each year. The washing of synthetic fibres, such as polyester, causes up to 35 per cent of all plastic microfibre pollution in the oceans. Whilst these fabrics were historically deemed important for the durability and stretchiness of activewear, in tangent with the rise in activewear, leading brands and innovators are paving the way with new ways to achieve these crucial qualities without causing so much harm.

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The intersection of style, sustainability, and sport is evolving rapidly, led by pioneers and driven by consumer demand and environmental urgency. However, the path to truly sustainable sporting events and activewear remains complex and fraught with challenges. As awareness grows and technologies advance, the hope is that the sports industry will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible both on and off the field, leading to a more sustainable sports landscape.