British rower and Olympian Imogen Grant has been crowned Athlete of the Year at the BBC Green Sport Awards.
The awards, which are in partnership with the Sport Positive Summit and available to watch on BBC iPlayer and across the BBC Sport website, celebrate individuals and organisations from around the world who are using their sporting profile to make change towards a more sustainable future.
An Olympic gold medallist in the Lightweight Scull event in Paris 2024, Imogen is also an ambassador for the Rivers Trust, where she has used her profile to talk about her own experience with poor water health as an athlete. From avoiding discarded fridges floating in the river to the effects of contamination on wildlife, Imogen has been vocal about the changes she has noticed in the sport. After completing the pilot of UK Sport’s Powered by Purpose programme, Imogen has become more prominent in the sustainability advocacy space and confidently uses her influence as an athlete to raise awareness and speak about her beliefs.
Imogen says: “It’s a complete honour to be chosen as the Green Sports Awards Athlete of the Year. I can only thank the huge team of people that include the Rivers Trust and British Rowing in supporting my passion both on and off the water. Campaigning for sustainability has added meaning to my athletic journey above and beyond what winning a medal could mean. I’m excited to see the outcomes of projects set into motion this year, and I encourage any aspiring athlete to speak up about what they care about too.”
After being announced as the winner on The One Show, it was unveiled that recent London College of Fashion, UAL alumn, Aishvarya Verma, would be creating an outfit for Imogen to wear to this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year using her old rowing kit.
Rhydian Cowley took home the award for World Athlete of the Year (formerly Young Athlete of the Year). Rhydian, who received a bronze medal in Paris this summer, supports leading environmental organisations and is an ambassador for EcoAthletes, Champions For Earth, the Sports Environment Alliance and collaborates with Bush Heritage Australia. Over the past year, he has elevated his contributions in sport and climate advocacy while qualifying for his third consecutive Olympics, including the 20k walk and the inaugural Olympic mixed race walk relay. In June 2024 he was one of 14 athletes to sign an open letter urging the International Olympic Committee to drop Toyota, accusing the Games’ major sponsor of greenwashing.
The Grassroots award was netted by Pledgeball, a research-driven charity that aims to help eliminate waste and encourage fans to think about their carbon footprint whilst travelling to and from football matches, as well as in their everyday life. Pledgeball are consistently active within the football community as their focus, but are increasingly partnering with other sports and organisations to support, promote and encourage the update of sustainable practice with their fans. Through Pledgeball in 2024, fans pledged to save 62,589,800 kg of CO2e per year, which equates to taking over 13,606.4 cars off the road.
The Evergreen Athlete of the Year (lifetime achievement) was received by professional surfer Adrian ‘Ace’ Buchan. Ace is a passionate climate advocate, playing a significant role in environmental activism. Not only is he a founding board member of Surfers for Climate, an Australian charity dedicated to combating climate change, but he is also an ambassador for WSL Pure, a non-profit working on climate crisis mitigation, coastal and marine conservation and addressing plastic pollution. In 2020, when he won the WSL Pure Award for Outstanding Ocean Advocacy, he donated the $25,000 prize money to the Climate Council.
World Athletics scooped the award for Elite Organisation of the Year after launching their Athletics for a Better World (ABW) Standards, which set a number of environmental, social and governance obligations that host cities or venues need to adhere to if they want to run a World Athletics-sanctioned event. The ABW Standard consists of 55 action areas that address all levels of event delivery-including procurement, waste management, energy, food and water management, travel and accommodation planning. In April 2024, The World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 became the first event to be awarded platinum level recognition against the ABW Standard.
RM4