2023-08-03 16:29:09
They are more used to stadiums, athletics tracks or swimming pools, but this week around ten professional athletes ventured onto the glaciers of the Mont-Blanc massif to feel the reality of global warming.
“High-level sport is far from being exemplary in limiting the phenomenon”, considers Martin Thomas, Olympic canoe-kayak athlete (5th at the Tokyo Olympics), at the initiative of this awareness trip called “Sport for future “. “We fly too much, for example. We must therefore change mentalities. Today, we walked on a glacier with crampons, we touched it, we saw the ice melt… It’s a much more memorable experience than a simple conference. Awareness is all the stronger”.
“Athletes can inspire people”
Among the athletes present, we find Montpellier rugby player Fulgence Ouedraogo, diver Benjamin Auffret (4th at the Rio Olympics), as well as medal hopefuls for Paris 2024 such as fencer Faustine Clapier or Naïlé Meignan in climbing. “Seeing all this mass of ice above Chamonix and hearing the glaciologists explain that it will disappear on the scale of a human life, it encourages us to make more efforts”, agrees the climber.
Next to her is the trail runner Xavier Thévenard, multiple winner of the Mont-Blanc ultra-trail and who has publicly announced that he will no longer fly: “Top athletes are part of the problem of global warming. On the other hand, as they are very publicized, very followed on social networks, athletes can on the contrary inspire people to limit their carbon footprint by adopting behaviors that are more respectful of the environment. »
Next year, “Sport for future” will take place after the Paris Olympics to attract more stars and spread its message even more widely. “We could welcome Léon Marchand or Teddy Riner, hopes Martin Thomas. They were interested in the project this year, but it didn’t fit with their schedule. »
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