At the age of 16, Innes FitzGerald turned down selection for the World Cross Country Championships because they were a long-haul flight away in Australia.
The environmental impact of getting on that plane was more important to her than the experience of competing on the international stage. That decision changed her life. Traditional media and social media wanted to know who she was and why she’d made that choice. Innes found herself being compared to the climate activist Greta Thunberg, something she welcomes.
We discuss that period in her life, and the factors that went into Innes writing that letter to British Athletics. She also explains how she continues to take trains and busses to as many European competitions as she can, and the factors she had to weigh up before stepping onto a plane to compete at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.
Having initially become famous for something she chose not to go to, Innes has since started to win gold at the championships that she has attended. In 2025, the British long-distance runner won the European under-20 titles at 3000m, 5000m and Cross Country. Then, on New Year’s Day 2026, she broke the women’s UK parkrun record.
In terms of the future, Innes explains what her sport’s governing bodies can do to make a global sport a greener one.
Photo: Julia Ehrle of Germany is overtaken by Innes Fitzgerald of United Kingdom during the U20 women's race at the 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, Portugal. (Credit: Sportsfile via Getty Images)