Britain’s Andy Symonds quits Worlds in Thailand to avoid worsening carbon footprint

Two years ago, the triple winner of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) Xavier Thévenard announced that he no longer wanted to fly out of “ecological conviction”. Another high-level trail runner, the Briton Andy Symonds, has just distinguished himself on Tuesday with a decision in favor of the preservation of the planet. The 41-year-old athlete, notably winner of the Lavaredo Ultra-Trail in Italy (119 km) in 2016, and author of solid performances over the 171 km of the UTMB (5th in 2019, 11th last month), indeed renounces to participate in the World Trail Championships, scheduled from November 1 to 7 in Thailand.

The reason for his refusal to honor a new selection in the British team? “My carbon footprint for 2022 will be around 6.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which is already too much,” he explains in an Instagram post. In order to limit the increase in global temperature, we must aim for 2 tons each. It was the few races I did away from home that contributed the most to my personal emissions, particularly because of the plane. »

“I can’t justify adding 4 tonnes to my carbon footprint”

Transparent, Andy Symonds presents in passing his carbon footprint diagram for the year 2022. His travels thus represent a third of his very heavy balance sheet, i.e. three times more than the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC).

“There’s not much I love more than running in the colors of Great Britain,” says the trail runner. However, this year the Worlds are in Thailand and I cannot justify adding another 4 tonnes to my carbon footprint. It seems particularly incoherent to me to try to take a public stance in favor of a sustainable lifestyle and then jump on a plane to Thailand for a single 8-hour ride. For a top athlete living in Europe, it would be almost as incoherent as scheduling a two-day camp in Qatar. Oh wait

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