Two health experts on Tuesday urged Olympic organizers to sever ties with major sponsor Coca-Cola, arguing that the lucrative sponsorship allows the US company to “sportswash” its unhealthy sugary drinks.
The Paris Olympics organizing committee announced on Tuesday that it would meet its target to halve single-use plastics compared to the 2012 London Games, despite the widespread use of Coca-Cola plastic bottles at its venues.
Coca-Cola, which has sponsored the Olympics since 1928, has ubiquitous advertisements for its fizzy drinks at the Paris Games. However, these sugary drinks “offer little or no nutritional value” and should not be promoted in sports, according to Trish Cotter and Sandra Mullin of the global health group Vital Strategies.
Sugary drinks are a “key driver” of serious health issues worldwide, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, the pair wrote in a commentary in the journal BMJ Global Health.
Additionally, Coca-Cola’s products contribute to global plastic pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and excessive water usage, they added.
“By continuing its association with Coca-Cola, the Olympic movement risks being complicit in exacerbating a global epidemic of poor nutrition, environmental degradation, and climate change,” the authors wrote. “It’s time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to cut ties with Coca-Cola in the interest of athletes, spectators, and the planet.”
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment.
Olympic staff have also been observed emptying plastic bottles into reusable cups, a practice some argue contradicts the Games’ commitment to being the greenest in history.
In May, Coca-Cola stated that nearly 10 out of 18 million refreshments, or “more than half” of those served to spectators, would be “without single-use plastic.” However, the company cited “technical and logistical constraints” for the continued use of plastics, despite a ban on single-use containers at Olympic sites.
At the swimming event site, for instance, glass bottles were emptied into red-and-white cups, as noted by an AFP journalist.
While 700 drinking fountains have been installed across the competition, plastic bottles are still used where glass alternatives are not feasible, said Georgina Grenon, head of sustainability for the Paris Games.
In a press release on Friday, Coca-Cola stated it needed to adapt to each location’s “best conditions for safety and food quality,” considering technical and logistical constraints, including water and electricity supplies and storage space.
Nonetheless, this year’s Paris Games are expected to reduce plastic usage significantly compared to the 2012 London Games, according to the organizing committee.
“We believe we will achieve this 50 percent single-use plastic reduction,” Grenon stated, noting that bottles poured into cups would not count towards this target.
Environmental protection charity France Nature Environment (FNE) criticized Coca-Cola for “unjustified plastic pollution,” awarding the company the “gold medal for greenwashing” during the Olympics.
In 2020, Coca-Cola signed a joint deal worth approximately $3 billion to extend its Olympic sponsorship until at least 2032.
In 2022, Coca-Cola, one of the world’s top plastics producers, manufactured 134 billion plastic bottles. The company aims to produce all its bottles from fully recycled plastic by 2030. At the Paris Games, around 6.2 million bottles are made from PET plastic, Coca-Cola said.
Cotter and Mullin highlighted that Coca-Cola had more sports sponsorships than any other brand last year, including sportswear companies like Nike.
“This strategy creates a golden opportunity to ‘sportswash’ an unhealthy product,” they wrote.
The World Health Organization has called for countries to tax sugar-sweetened beverages.
A petition titled “Kick Big Soda Out of Sport,” launched ahead of the Games, has garnered more than 109,000 signatures and is supported by various public health organizations, including the World Obesity Federation.
