On the occasion of its 20th edition, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) will once again have brought together 10,000 athletes and a large audience in the Chamonix valley (Haute-Savoie) in one week. This Saturday, September 2, the American Jim Walmsley won in the flagship race, setting a new record, under the 20 hour mark. But the event also generates questions and criticisms about the environmental impact of this booming outdoor discipline.
« We do a sport that is supposed to be close to nature. As a runner, it’s a wonderful event because you feel like you’re doing the Olympics. But from an environmental point of view, it is clear that the situation is quite critical,” explains Juliette Blanchet, triple “finisher” of the UTMB and researcher in climatology. Since its creation in 2003 and until this year, the king of trail running has continued to grow, attracting runners from all over the world who hope to admire the most beautiful landscapes around Mont-Blanc while by testing their athletic limits.
The weight of spectator transport
« This experience has a cost for the planet. There is hardly any waste produced on site, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the impact of all the trips made to come to the valley.says the scientist. We all have contradictions. I myself have flown to competitions in the past. But I avoid now, because we can all do better and we all played our part ».
To assess its impact on nature, the organizers of the UTMB commissioned the WWF in 2019 to carry out a carbon assessment. According to the association, the carbon footprint of the event amounted to 11,610 tonnes of CO2 equivalent “or 1.3 tonnes per runner”. ” This is obviously a key concern for us, we are aware of this impact,” explained the organizers in an email sent to AFP. ” the weight of transport (on the carbon emission of the event, editor’s note) is a constant on which we must all act,” they add.
The UTMB claims to have set up a carpooling platform and a long-term relay parking system to “limit the number of vehicles in the valley”, as well as to have reinforced its public transport capacities. Before, during and after the races, the marked paths for the athletes are cleaned, and the use of plastic has been reduced to the strict minimum, according to several runners interviewed.
The partnership with Dacia disputed
« The UTMB has made quite a few small efforts, but when it comes to major actions, they are more cautious,” says Andy Symonds, English runner and 5th in the race in 2019. In mid-August, he relayed, alongside trail star Kilian Jornet and other professional trail runners, a petition launched by the British association The Green Runners, calling on the race to sever its recent partnership with carmaker Dacia. ” It is the showcase of the discipline, the most publicized race. The public will admire the beautiful landscapes and associate them with a brand that produces polluting vehicles, which seeks to green its image. The organizers discredit themselves, » regrette Andy Symonds.
Ultra-trailer Damian Hall, co-founder of The Green Runners, also points to the new qualification system for the premier event, forcing athletes to collect points by participating in races stamped UTMB, organized in the four corners of the world. ” If you are injured during the qualifying race in your country, you will have to fly to another race elsewhere. This increased the number of trips. This novelty and the naming, it’s really a shame because otherwise it’s really a great event,” says the athlete.
The organizers recently met with a delegation of runners to discuss the issue of the partnership, signed for three years. ” But they defended their decision and showed no willingness to change. We had more the impression of exchanging with a large company than a trail organizer,” castigates one of them. However, the UTMB is not the only event to generate all these issues related to the environment: the trail is growing and nothing seems to be able to stop it.
By François D’Astier – Agence France-Presse
© SportBusiness.Club August 2023
