The Olympic Games have been around on and off since 776 BC. These days, we tune in to the sports in order to support our country, see if any new records are being broken, and so on. Some people even go to sites like Marathonbet when they have their own ideas about who is going to win in a discipline.
There is something that, unfortunately, follows this great tradition – the way the preparations affect the surrounding area for years to come. Here are the usual problems with the environmental impact of the Olympics.
Construction and Pollution
Whenever a host country is selected, the hosts have to arrange the location so that all the games can be played and observed comfortably. Sometimes, that involves clearing out a field or a forest if there is no structure already present. This is done because a new Olympic stadium in the middle of a city would cause problems for the infrastructure. Now, as anyone who has ever been near a building site knows, there is always a lot of rubble. The bigger the construction, the larger the pile.
The perfect example of what not to do is Sochi. We may be looking at a real record-breaking environmental monster. The entire city and some of its surrounding areas essentially became a construction site for the 2014 Olympics. The citizens complained of not having any drinking water. Why? Because the aforementioned debris from clearing out fields and construction, paired with the garbage produced by the workers on a daily basis had to go somewhere. A lot of it was illegally and irresponsibly dumped into former national parks and areas from which the city got its water.
A similar thing happened in Brazil in 2016. The water in Rio De Janeiro had, up to that point, been of questionable quality. However, when the Olympics came, the issue turned into a real disaster. It was not just the drinking water. The sea was so full of viruses and bacteria, that minuscule quantities could seriously jeopardize people’s health.
Will Tokyo 2020 Be the Same?
It’s impossible to tell. However, we do know that Japan has decided to make sustainability its priority for the Games. The country has one advantage over everyone else – the pandemic postponed the Games for a year and, at the time of writing, the Olympics are scheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021.
So far, the new hosts have done something worth mentioning. They will be using existing venues, make the medals from recycled electronics, aim towards zero carbon emissions, and rely on renewable energy sources, to name a few.
The truth is that this event and future Games have to be done carefully and with full consideration of the consequences. That means that we have to make profits from the building projects and tourism takes a back seat to sustainability. Otherwise, we might as well cancel the sporting event.