Main content

Wickets, Wildlife and Why We Should Try

How can Sport fight Climate Change?

As Namibia's men continue to make history at their first T20 Cricket World Cup we speak to Dr Rudie van Vuuren, a two-sport international for the country. These days Dr van Vuuren combines his passion for sport with a passion for conservation. He recalls playing at both the Cricket and Rugby World Cups in 2003 and tells us what he would like to see come out of the COP26 Climate Change Conference.

We put the same question to Seyi Smith. He’s a Summer and Winter Olympian who's co-founded 'Racing to Zero' in his native Canada. The aim is to make small-scale, local sporting events carbon neutral. Seyi was a sprinter who represented his country at London 2012 and then at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Bobsled. But he’s also an engineer by trade. Once his track career had ended, it was a speech by the former US President Barack Obama which convinced him he needed to encourage grass-roots change to tackle the climate crisis.

Great Britain Rower, Melissa Wilson, joins us as she prepares to attend COP26 as a representative of the athletes’ group ‘Champions for Earth’. What does Melissa want the summit to achieve?

This week, we passed 100 days to go to the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. Uganda's Brolin Mawejje is hoping to become the first African to snowboard at the Olympics. He was born in Uganda, who've never been represented at the Winter Games. He only saw snow for the first time at the age of 12, after moving to the United States. Having originally targeted qualification for the 2018 Winter Olympics, a heart attack suffered whilst being treated in hospital ended those hopes.

Image: Namibia's Rudie van Vuuren leaves the field after the match against England in The ICC Cricket World Cup at St George's Park stadium in Port Elizabeth 19 February 2003. (Photo credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Release date:

Available now

49 minutes

Podcast