MADRID, 18 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The city of Madrid, as World Sports Capital 2022, hosted this Friday the III World Sports Meeting, an event focused on sustainability that brought together leaders from cities around the world around a large work table, in order to to convert sport into a more environmentally sustainable activity.
The meeting took the first steps to promote a common strategy of cities, united by sustainability in sport, which finally materialized in measures that all the participants agreed upon as a starting point and commitment towards the future.
The Congress, which took place in the Pabellón de los Jardines de Cecilio Rodríguez in El Retiro park, was chaired by the Sports delegate of the Madrid City Council, Sofía Miranda, who stressed the need to convert sport “into a sustainable activity at an environmental, social and economic level”. “A common strategy for cities must be defined so that sport is the main vector for achieving a sustainable society,” she said.
The Environment and Mobility delegate, Borja Carabante, welcomed the participants, representatives of cities such as Glasgow, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá, Barcelona, Valencia, Sofia, Mexico City, León, Konya and San Juan, as well as Netherlands, Uruguay, Ecuador or the Piedmont region in Italy.
One of the objectives agreed upon in the Congress was to involve the public and communicate the importance of reducing environmental impact. In this sense, Miranda made his position clear. “Madrid wants to involve cities from all over the world so that the future of sport is sustainable, because sustainability is not a fad, it is an obligation, and it is the challenge that is most worth investing our effort in,” she said.
As reported by the City Council of the capital, during the meeting they discussed whether sporting events leave a legacy in society, whether partners are aligned with the commitment that institutions want to transmit, not only to children in grassroots sports, but also to the image of the city that these events project internationally, and whether sport should be a motor of social and economic change towards a fairer future.
The big sporting events also had a place in the Congress to analyze how year after year they are adapting to achieve a negative impact on the environment. Thus Gerard Tsobanian, CEO of Madrid Trophy Promotion (Mutua Madrid Open and Acciona Open de Golf), Pedro Rumbao, vice president of Mapoma (Madrid Marathon), Charles Ojalvo, director of sponsorships of Unipublic (La Vuelta) and Victor Casanovas, CEO of Seven Mila (Madrid Urban Sports) talked about eliminating paper and plastic bottles, committing to ecological mobility and recycling, or reducing the carbon footprint.
The event also served as the starting point for Miami’s candidacy for World Capital of Sports 2025. In his presentation, Julián Linares, a member of the Miami Board of International Trade, extolled the value of the candidacy. “You have to intertwine the sport with the values of education and principles that it entails,” he said.