UK’s ‘Greta Thunberg of sport’ refuses to fly to compete in Australia

A 16-year-old competitive endurance runner has been nicknamed the “Greta Thunberg of sport” after refusing to travel to Australia to compete in the World Cross Country Championships.

Innes Fitzgerald, from Devon, wrote an open letter to British Athletics on 20 January, asking to be excluded from its team selection for the World Cross Country Championships. The event is set to take place in Bathurst, New South Wales on 18 February.

“To have the opportunity to compete for Great Britain in Australia is a privilege,” Ms Fitzgerald wrote in the letter.

“When I started running, the prospect of me competing in the World Cross Country Championships would have seemed merely a dream. However, the reality of the travel fills me with deep concern.

“I would never be comfortable flying in the knowledge that people could be losing their livelihoods, homes and loved ones as a result.

“The least I can do is voice my solidarity with those suffering on the front line of climate breakdown. Coming to a decision has not been easy, however little compares to the grief I would feel taking the flight.”

Travel to New South Wales from the UK involves a 22+-hour flight, with current options restricted to connecting flights with stops in the Middle East, Singapore or elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

According to Clevel’s carbon calculator, a return flight from London Heathrow to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International could produce 6101kg of carbon per person, based on travellers flying in economy.

Ms Fitzgerald placed fourth in December’s European Cross Country Championships in Turin, where it emerged she had decided to travel by train from the UK due to her concerns about the climate crisis.

Last July she broke the UK under-17 women’s record for the 3,000m in Belfast, running the distance in 8:59.67 minutes.

Ms Fitzgeralnd has said her family is equally committed to avoiding carbon-heavy travel, with the group taking an overnight coach to Lille then a train onward to Turin for the European Championships, packing folding bicycles to ride between stations on the way.

“My family is as environmentally minded as I am,” she told Athletics Weekly.

“We live in a passive house on a smallholding, growing fruit and vegetables. So my dad was happy for us not to fly.

“Aviation is the most energy intensive activity we can do and explodes a person’s carbon footprint. I don’t want that on my conscience.”

Athletes’ collective Champions for Earth told Athletics Weekly: “[Innes] is looking for sponsors and supporters who can help her with the more expensive public transport, accommodation and eco-friendly kit that she requires.

“It is clear that Innes has the steely determination and focus, combined with the courage and clarity to face a reality quite different to athletes of previous generations.

“As a young person with Olympic dreams growing up during a climate and ecological emergency, she is balancing the dream of one day becoming a champion of the world, with a determination to be a champion for earth.”

British Athletics declined to comment on this story.