Meet Innes FitzGerald, the ‘Greta Thunberg of sport' who is determined to make a difference

New York Times

2 days ago

Innes FitzGerald is a runner in a hurry.
The Briton only turned 19 in April but has already stepped up impressively to senior competition. She recorded a personal best in finishing third in the 3,000 metres on her Diamond League debut in Stockholm earlier this month and followed it up with another PB in the 5,000m in the same series' London event last Saturday.
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In achieving the latter, she smashed compatriot Zola Budd's 40-year-old record by more than eight seconds to become the fastest European under-20 woman of all time over that distance, and the 14th-fastest under-20 in the world.
Yet that progress has come at a cost.
FitzGerald was dubbed the 'Greta Thunberg of sport' after she declined the opportunity to compete in the Junior World Cross Country Championships in Australia three years ago on environmental grounds — she did not want to take the long-haul plane journeys there and back. In the letter she sent to British Athletics explaining the decision, she wrote: 'I would never be comfortable flying in the knowledge that people could be losing their livelihoods, homes and loved ones as a result.'
Those comparisons to Thunberg, the 22-year-old Swedish activist who captured the world's attention with her school strike for climate protests as a teenager, might not always have been designed as a compliment, but FitzGerald embraces them.
'It's definitely a compliment,' she tells The Athletic. 'The way Greta mobilised so many students is incredible. She had such a powerful voice. It's a privilege to have anything about me related to her in some way. I don't think I'm quite at her level, but I'd like to think that I can create a change within sport, as she did with students across the world.
'To turn down a GB vest is never easy, but at the time, it was the right decision for me. I wanted to show that I cared, and if I'd gone there and said, 'I didn't want to have to fly, it wasn't a good thing to have to do', people wouldn't have looked at it in the same way as not going at all.
'Although I'm having to fly to championships (these days) despite not wanting to, people now know that. Sometimes I just don't share the same excitement as other people because I just feel a weight on my shoulders that I'm harming the environment and ultimately affecting other people.'
FitzGerald has frequently attended protests by environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion, was part of a 60,000-strong crowd in Westminster's Parliament Square for a four-day demonstration referred to as 'the Big One' in April 2023, and also hopes to persuade athletics governing bodies to make changes. She speaks about 'dreading' flying and of her 'immense guilt when on the plane'.
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Perhaps that is no surprise, given she grew up in the Devon countryside, living with her family on a farm near Exeter in the south-west of England. 'That connection with nature has always been there,' she says.
These deeply-held beliefs around the climate crisis stem from that rural upbringing, but also a fascination with the scientific facts related to it. 'I'm really interested in learning about science,' she says. 'That motivation to learn about things has helped grow my knowledge and to realise the impacts of our human actions on the environment.'
FitzGerald is studying for an undergraduate degree in exercise and sports science, which, she says, has helped with her burgeoning athletics career. Yet, while many start at an early age, she is a late bloomer, only taking up the sport in secondary school at age 16.
'That was good for me. If I pushed it at a young age, I don't think I'd have the same love for the sport as I do now,' she says. 'I started doing schools' cross-country and running a bit during Covid because I was bored.'
She eventually made her way to the Exeter Harriers athletics club, where her potential has been keenly nurtured by coach Gavin Pavey and his wife, Jo, a five-time Olympic athlete who won European Championship gold at 10,000m in 2014.
Yet FitzGerald laughs at how her parents almost discouraged her initially from taking up running, as they would have preferred her to do something closer to home. 'They're very uncompetitive people, which is kind of crazy considering I'm so competitive,' she says. 'But it's good that they've never pushed me at all. The drive to do something has always come from within.'
It wasn't until after the race in London that FitzGerald became aware that her 5,000m time of 14:39:56 had eclipsed Budd's time of 14:48:07 from 1985, or that she had beaten Pavey's personal best of 14:39:96, set in 2006. Yet she has stayed humble, pointing out her time was achieved wearing the 'super shoes' which have helped shred the record books in recent years. 'I've got to get a little bit quicker for it (Pavey's PB) to be properly beaten,' she adds.
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Those personal milestones do not seem to motivate her anyway — FitzGerald insists she isn't going to 'chase times', despite being four seconds off Budd's 'insane' British under-20 record for 3,000m of 8:28:83. Instead, she wants to work on the tactical side of racing, describing her previous 'naivety' in terms of starting races too quickly. FitzGerald now often gradually makes her way up from a position towards the back of the pack.
Despite saying she 'quite often lacks a bit of confidence', FitzGerald has lofty ambitions while insisting her priority will always remain about enjoying her sport. 'Hopefully, I will go to more major championships and fight for medals. I want a global medal, whether that be at the Olympics or the World Championships. Even when I get there, I'm not going to stop. I feel like some people can be like, 'OK, I've been, that was fine'. I want to continue this career as long as I can.'
Her environmental awareness perhaps helps keep athletics in perspective. Despite feeling 'hopeless' about the former at times, she presents a message of optimism based on the collective public action that sport can galvanise.
'Everyone's ingrained into flying everywhere,' she says. 'They don't really consider other options. I'd like the governing bodies and decision-makers to think more broadly. We don't have to fly everywhere, there are other options, and sometimes they are easier. When we went out to Brussels (in Belgium) for the European Cross-Country Championships, everyone flew. We could have taken the Eurostar (train from London) — it takes about the same amount of time, if not less.
'I have a platform for people who want to follow along with the sport. So if I can talk a bit about the climate crisis and my concerns there, it helps remind people that as sportspeople we do care as well and we're not just going along with this system as it is or that we're happy with it.'
FitzGerald begrudgingly accepts the unwelcome trade-off with her chosen career, but views it also as an opportunity to enact change. The more success she has on the track and the cross-country trails, the greater the chance of being able to influence others to join her cause.
'We have big platforms, and it's really important to talk about the things we care about,' she says. 'I don't want to shy away from talking and, ultimately, it (the climate crisis) shouldn't be a controversial topic.
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'If high-profile athletes come together and say, 'This is what we want to happen', then, as long as it's realistic, I don't see why we can't make a change in the sport.'
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