Two health experts on Tuesday urged Olympic organizers to cut ties with major sponsor Coca-Cola, saying current mega-sponsorship deals allow the U.S. company to “sport-wash” unhealthy sugary drinks.
Meanwhile, Paris Olympic organisers said on Tuesday they would meet their target of halving single-use plastic compared with the 2012 London Olympics, despite widespread use of Coca-Cola bottles at the venues.
The Paris events featured an array of advertisements for the ubiquitous fizzy drink from Coca-Cola, which has been an Olympic sponsor since 1928.
But Trish Cotter and Sandra Marin of global health organisation Vital Strategies say these sugary drinks have “little to no nutritional value” and there is no place in sport for promoting such unhealthy products.
Sugary drinks are a “major contributor” to a range of serious health problems affecting people around the world, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, they said in an editorial in the journal BMJ Global Health.
He added that Coca-Cola products also contribute to global plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and use large amounts of water.
“By continuing its partnership with Coca-Cola, the Olympic Movement risks contributing to exacerbating the global epidemics of malnutrition, environmental degradation and climate change,” the authors write.
“In the interest of athletes, spectators and the planet, it is time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to end its partnership with Coca-Cola.”
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment.
Olympic staff were also seen pouring the contents of plastic bottles into reusable cups, which some said was a violation of pledges to be the greenest Olympic Games in history.
Coca-Cola announced in May that about 10 million of the 18 million drinks served to spectators — or “more than half” — will be “single-use plastic-free.”
But the Atlanta-based giant said “technical and logistical constraints” had forced it to use plastic, despite Paris banning spectators from bringing disposable containers into Olympic venues.
At the swimming venue, for example, glass bottles were being emptied into red and white cups, an AFP reporter noted.
Georgina Glennon, sustainability chief for the Paris Games, said 700 water fountains had been installed throughout the competition venues, but plastic bottles were being used where glass alternatives were not available.
Coca-Cola said in a press release on Friday that it needs to adapt to each location, taking into account technical and logistical constraints such as water and electricity supplies and storage space, and find the “best conditions for safety and food quality.”
But organisers say this year’s Paris Games should use even less plastic than the London Games in 2012.
“Projecting what will be offered, we believe a 50 percent reduction in single-use plastics is achievable,” Glennon said.
Bottles poured into cups do not count toward this goal, she added.
Environmental charity France Naturale (FNE) slammed the company for “unjustified plastic pollution”, adding on Friday that the US company “deserves a gold medal for greenwashing” during the Olympics.
In 2020, Coca-Cola signed a joint deal worth a reported $3 billion to extend its Olympic sponsorship.
The partnership is expected to last until at least 2032.
Coca-Cola, the world’s leading plastic producer, produced 134 billion plastic bottles in 2022, according to the most recent data available.
The drinks giant has set a goal of having all its bottles made entirely from recycled plastic by 2030.
According to Coca-Cola, about 6.2 million of the plastics currently in the Paris Games’ trash bins are a type of plastic called PET plastic.
Vital Strategies’ Cotter and Mullin noted that Coca-Cola had more sports sponsorship deals last year than any other brand, including sportswear companies like Nike.
“This strategy leads to a gold medal opportunity to ‘sportwash’ unhealthy products,” they wrote.
The World Health Organisation has called on countries to impose taxes on sugary drinks.
A petition launched ahead of the Olympics called “Get Big Soda Out of Sport” has garnered more than 109,000 signatures and is backed by a range of public health organisations, including the World Obesity Federation.
