Team GB gold medallist Imogen Grant demands government action after claiming award

Imogen Grant is simply a passionate campaigner connected clime alteration and sustainability and she has her sights acceptable connected forcing enactment aft winning a golden medal for Team GB astatine the Paris Olympics

Imogen Grant has a full-time occupation moving successful the NHS arsenic a doc arsenic good arsenic grooming doubly a time arsenic a rower – and yet she inactive someway finds clip to prosecute her different passion.

Grant won a golden medal for Team GB astatine the Paris Olympic Games successful the lightweight treble sculls with Emily Craig. Victory successful August was a culmination of 4 years of relentless grooming aft the duo missed retired connected a medal astatine the Tokyo Games by 0.01 seconds.

Her hard enactment has besides brought astir different portion of silverware, with Grant being named Athlete of the Year astatine the BBC Sport Green Awards connected Monday night. The 28-year-old has utilized her level to rise consciousness of h2o pollution, having been shocked by the diminution successful conditions successful her section area.

“For maine arsenic a rower, I’m connected h2o each time – beryllium it a stream oregon a lake,” she tells Mirror Sport . “I’m truthful incredibly fortunate to sojourn these places that are often beauteous locations of nature, but sometimes they are not arsenic beauteous arsenic they should be. I enactment connected the aforesaid spot of stream each season, greeting and evening, and I spot it alteration and get worse – watching the scum travel down, the foam and the bubbles of pollution.

“Having done h2o investigating astatine our nationalist grooming centre aft the flooding past year, determination were immense levels of nitrates and phosphates, which are some proxies for cultivation run-off, oregon sewage to enactment it plainly – and that’s the h2o that we’re grooming connected each day. It’s been thing that’s been neglected for a fig of years and it’s thing that I’m passionate astir trying to change.”

Grant is an ambassador for the Rivers Trust and is actively progressive successful trying to promote rowers to trial the h2o they bid on. That information tin past beryllium collated and enactment to the authorities to effort and unit alteration astatine the highest level.

The contented has go much salient successful caller years and 2 large stories successful athletics has provoked anger. In March, the celebrated Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race was marred by high levels of E. coli successful the River Thames. Competitors were banned from entering the h2o post-race, but Oxford mens’ skipper Leonard Jenkins still vomited earlier his race, claiming he’d go sick from the h2o successful London.

The Paris Olympics were past marred by the poor h2o prime successful the River Seine, which threw the triathlon into chaos. Two Portuguese athletes fell ill, contempt Paris politician Anne Hidalgo swimming successful the stream herself successful a hopeless bid to beryllium it was safe.

Grant says contamination has presented dangers for rowers and swimmers successful the UK. “We person athletes that autumn sick with tummy bugs oregon blisters connected our hands get infected – that’s conscionable a hazard of doing our athletics astatine the moment,” helium says. “The past happening we privation to bash is discourage radical from utilizing the rivers for what they’re really determination for. We don’t privation it to beryllium scary. We should beryllium changing the river, alternatively than changing our behaviour.”

Grant was a portion of the UK Sport-funded Powered by Purpose campaign, which brought her unneurotic with different athletes passionate astir speaking retired against issues astir sport. She firmly believes that governing bodies should beryllium taking a stronger stance connected warring clime change.

“The penny is starting to driblet for sporting bodies,” Grant says. “Athletes aren’t conscionable accepting that things are bully capable immoderate more. We privation our governing bodies to spell supra and beyond. I deliberation an important archetypal measurement volition beryllium for each of these bodies to admit that we person a truly salient relation to play successful this due to the fact that we’re truthful visible. Sport is each astir pulling unneurotic against the bid adversity, successful this lawsuit clime change.”

Grant believes determination is 1 obvious, and perchance straightforward, measurement that could beryllium taken close away: “I’d emotion to spot athletics divest of lipid and fossil substance sponsorship arsenic a commencement and to besides effort and pb the mode to minimise our transport emissions.

“Sport can’t spend to take that hazard anymore due to the fact that spectators cognize erstwhile it’s disingenuous. They cognize erstwhile they’re being sold a atrocious deal. If athletics takes wealth from lipid and fossil fuels, the fans are going to crook and inquire wherefore we’re destroying the satellite and making it intolerable to adjacent play the athletics due to the fact that it’s excessively blistery and the pitches are flooded.”

As good arsenic starring connected h2o prime and trying to clasp sporting governing bodies accountable, Grant is vegan, having made the alteration from being vegetarian successful January 2023. And portion the alteration was made chiefly for sustainability reasons, her fare displacement has had different affirmative impact.

“I’ve PB’d, I’ve got stronger, fitter and faster and won an Olympic golden medal being a vegan athlete,” she explains. “For maine it was benignant of a no-brainer, due to the fact that it’s 1 of the astir impactful idiosyncratic changes you tin marque to your manner and it’s 1 I person power over. I don’t needfully person power implicit whether I person abstraction and a charging constituent for an electrical car to trim my emissions but I tin take what I’m eating.

“I bash deliberation there’s a batch of apprehension astir it – worrying astir getting capable protein, worrying astir being bare oregon bushed and those are risks if you don’t bash it right, due to the fact that it is simply a drastic change. I’d ever advocator doing it gradually, astir uncovering swaps that marque you consciousness bully and happy, due to the fact that that’s however you physique information and momentum to marque the adjacent one.”