Rhydian Cowley OLY: Why I’ve joined the Fossil Free Declaration

Rhydian Cowley OLY is an Australian race walker whose career embodies persistence, integrity, and purpose within and beyond sport. Born in Melbourne in 1991, Cowley began race walking as a teenager, drawn to the event’s combination of endurance, rhythm, and resilience. Over nearly two decades, he has become one of Australia’s most respected race walkers, representing his country at three Olympic Games - Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 - as well as multiple World Athletics Championships. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, he and his teammate Jemima Montag won bronze in the inaugural mixed marathon race walk relay.

Outside of competing, Cowley has worked as an environmental scientist and campaigner, linking his professional training to his belief that athletes can and should play a meaningful role in driving climate action. 

Rhydian chatted with Cool Down about his decision to join the Fossil Free Declaration and what he hopes to achieve with and through the initiative.

Why do you think sport has a crucial role to play in addressing the climate crisis?

I think there are several aspects to sport’s role in addressing the climate crisis. Firstly, it is something that makes the impacts of climate change more tangible - when extreme weather leads to cancelled games, it is closer to home for people than hearing about fires and floods in some far off place. Secondly, the connection that so many people have with sport means that athletes can be powerful communicators, articulating how they are experiencing the climate crisis, and also the actions that they and others can take to mitigate and reduce our impact and adapt to the changes that are already locked in.

How is the climate crisis impacting sport in Australia? What frightens you the most about these impacts and how have you been personally impacted?

In Australia, sport is copping it from both ends when it comes to climate change, especially at the community and regional/rural level which has fewer resources to adapt and be resilient with. The increased frequency and intensity of drought, heatwaves and bushfires challenges summer sports from an athlete and spectator safety perspective, air quality, and maintaining the quality of playing surfaces like footy & cricket ovals and soccer pitches. Increased frequency and intensity of rain and flood events also really challenge the ability for sport to be held, not just when it floods but also in terms of how long it can take to repair any damage afterwards.

I’ve been most impacted by the heat. With athletics being a summer sport, I’ve had training camps affected by bushfire smoke, and championship events impacted by extreme heatwaves. While I do my best to prepare for the worst the conditions can throw at me, it is not a guarantee of safety. In the 2023 World Championships I suffered from heatstroke during the 35km walk, as the host city Budapest baked through a week of 35°C+ weather.

You are active in climate action at a local level. Why do you think this is an important aspect of your work alongside the more global efforts?

Not every athlete has a huge global profile, so for athletes like me the strongest and most influential connections that we have are to those in our local community. I find when it comes to climate action, the local level stuff can be a bit more tangible than the higher level actions. That personal connection to places and people helps, and it’s more possible to actually see when you’ve made a difference - like when you’ve joined a local litter cleanup, or seen a change in a local club or council policy, like the installation of solar panels on building rooftops. While national government & global level action is important, climate action won’t happen fast enough without grassroots local action and support. I suppose it’s a bit like acting out the philosophy of think global act local.

How do you balance your commitments as an athlete and a climate activist? 

It can sometimes be difficult, but I make time for things that are important to me. Being in a sport where the training time is about 12-14 hours a week gives me time in the rest of my day to fit in these other things. For me, climate action can be broken into smaller, discrete pieces which make it manageable to fit into my days and weeks which I can dial up or down depending on my capacity. Supporting campaigns, such as the Fossil Free Declaration, and the recently launched in Australia Sport Forever, are examples of ways I can be involved without making a gigantic time commitment. 

While I can dial up or down the amount of time I commit, it is important to me to keep some level of involvement consistent throughout the year. To make that easier I have tried to thread the different aspects of my life together around climate action. For example, I work at a conservation organisation, Bush Heritage Australia, so I also know that my work life is helping support nature and climate action, while being a part of World Athletics’ Champions for a Better World program allows me to wear both my athlete hat and my climate action hat at the same time.

Being involved with groups like EcoAthletes, the Sports Environment Alliance, & Frontrunners, means that I am not going it alone - climate action is easier in a team, and having teammates to carry the climate action baton means I don’t feel like I have to do it all myself. I can rest when I need to rest, and that helps keep me from being burned out. After all, just like success in sport, climate action doesn’t happen overnight.

Why is it important to you to speak out against fossil fuel sponsorship?

Fossil Fuel sports sponsorship is a key way for fossil fuel producers normalise themselves and buy good will from sports fans and the general public, which softens the political power these organisations wield in halls of government to slow or stop the transition towards non-polluting forms of energy. This sport sponsorship influence is particularly visible in Football, Golf & Cycling, even though the continued burning of fossil fuels puts the future of those and other sports at risk. While it might be less visible in my sport of Athletics, it is important for athletes from across sport to call fossil fuel sponsorship out as a step towards removing it from sport, and fossil fuels from our lives. 

Without that critical voice, and these sponsorships being considered normal, or good, will severely limit our ability to have a safe climate in which to play sport in the future.

What do you hope the Fossil Free Declaration will achieve in sport? 

I hope that the Fossil Free Declaration will build on momentum to remove fossil fuel sponsorship from sport, adding to previous campaigns that I have seen highlighting concerns with specific sponsors, for example Santos (a fossil gas company) and the Tour Down Under in Australia. It is important to demonstrate that it is not socially acceptable to receive sponsorship money from fossil fuel producers, either as an athlete, club or event organiser. As more athletes join the Fossil Free Declaration, it will increase the pressure for club and event sponsorships to be reconsidered, and athletes should feel more comfortable to join without worrying about their livelihood.

If you had a message for other athletes in your sport, what would it be?

If you feel concerned about climate change and how it has impacted you, you’re not alone. In 2023 a World Athletics survey showed that 85 per cent of athletes who took part believe our sport has been negatively impacted by climate change. And there are many of us who are active on the issue, for example those of us in the Champions for a Better World Programme. You don’t need to know everything about climate change, or climate action, to make an impact. Speak about your experience, and find a way to take action that works for you - wherever you look you’ll find a team that you can work with.