Sustainable development and the Olympics 2

© IOC

Timeline of the common ground between the global goal of sustainable development and the Olympic Movement.

1996

The Olympic Charter adopts the environment as the third pillar of Olympism, together with sport and culture.

1998

Nagano Olympic Winter Games, with the motto ‘harmony with nature’, becomes the first Winter Olympic Games to host more than 2,000 athletes.

1999

The Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21 – Sport for Sustainable Development, applying the UN’s Agenda 21 to sport, is published.

2000

The Sydney Olympiad incorporates environmental thinking into all aspects of the Games. The construction of the eco-friendly Olympic village ends the myth that green housing technologies are too expensive to implement on a large scale.

2001

The booklet Be a Champion for the Environment is published, focusing on the importance of a clean environment for the Olympic Family and athletes in general.

2002

The UN Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa, reaffirms the international community’s commitment to the implementation of Agenda 21 and agrees to focus on ‘the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of people, which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis’.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) forms a partnership with the UN Interagency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace.

2004

The Olympics, back home again in Greece, renew Athens’ transport infrastructure, improving traffic, significantly reducing air pollution and protecting the natural heritage of its archaeological sites.

2005

The IOC publishes its Guide on Sport, Environment and Sustainable Development to help all sport transform the recommendations of the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21 into concrete actions and practical programmes.

2006

The environment is included in the lead-up to the Turin Winter Olympic Games, during the Games, and in what is left behind. The Organizing Committee forms a strategic alliance with UNEP to provide support and cooperation in the implementation of environmental projects connected to the Games and their legacy.

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