The
climate is changing major sports in Portugal and around the world. Almost all
except water sports are being impacted, increasingly so.
The
sports most affected in Portugal are golf, football, tennis, cycling and horse
riding.
Golf is
the number one sport in the Algarve for visitors and many expats. Most golfers
prefer to play in the cooler months, but even then problems due to heat are
getting worse.
It’s
mainly about water. Greenkeepers on the Algarve’s many excellent courses are
having to cope with severe or extreme droughts. The fairways, driving range,
tees and greens on an 18-hole course need an awful lot of irrigation. Even a
nine-hole course needs plenty of water.
A
18-hole round of golf may take about four and a half hours to play. Most
golfers don’t want to be out in the midday sun, even in the months of April or
May. And even spending half that time on a nine-hole course can be gruelling
enough at a warm time of year.
Courses
close to the coastline sometimes offer cooling breezes, but rising sea levels
are already threatening to flood some coastal courses, including for example,
the iconic Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland.
Algarve
courses have always attracted many winter visitors from northern European
countries. Rising temperatures and less snow are keeping northern courses open
longer and reducing the number of visitors to the increasing economic detriment
of clubs here.
Football
is by far the most popular sport in Portugal. The top professional season usually
starts in mid-September and continues well into the following July. The summer
months can be sweltering for players and fans alike. How many years they can go
on like this is anyone’s guess.
Some
football clubs, such as FC Barelona in Spain, are starting to help minimize CO2
levels by transporting players for matches in distant venues by train than than more
polluting private jets. This is also creating more public awareness and
encouraging fans to do the same, in some cases with free train tickets.
Tennis
attracts many visitors to the Algarve, but, like golfers, increasingly they are
finding it best to avoid playing In the mid-afternoon. A match can take
anywhere between one and several hours depending on the type of game and skill
of the players. Morning or late afternoon is best even at this time of the
year.
Irrigating
tennis courts is only a fraction of the problem faced by golf greenkeepers and
there is always the option of artificial grass or clay courts
Horse-riding
is enjoyed all-year-round by many Portuguese and resident expats. The
warming climate can affect the health of horses more than riders, causing
hypothermia, dehydration, weight loss, as well as respiratory, skin, hoof and
eye infections.
Anyone who watched on TV the Grand National at Aintree in the UK last month will have seen the countless buckets of water splashed on the over-heated winning horse. The biggest annual horse festival in Portugal is held in Golegã in the cool though often wet month of November.
As in
other sports in the warmer months here, morning and evening are best for
enjoyable horse riding in the countryside. Very helpfully in the heat of
summer, volunteers ride their horses in forested areas to detect and report any
outbreaks of wildfires.
Portugal is well-known internationally for its cycling holiday tours. A seven-day package in the Algarve, including bed and breakfast, might start with transport from Faro Airport to Alte in the countryside and then on to and around Silves, Monte de Cima, Lagos or Salema. Visiting cyclists can choose their own time of year.
Local
bikers, as well as long and short-distance joggers and hikers can choose and
change their own time of day. Enclosed venues are available for athletes and
gymnasts, but the changing climate remains important, if not key, to most
non-water sports.
Forced
changes have started and will likely become increasingly inhibiting. How things
are in 2030 and the hopefully net-zero year of 2050 remains to be seen.