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Innes FitzGerald is a young athlete on a mission: to win medals for Britain while saving the planet. While most sports stars are media trained to say as little as possible, the 18-year-old from Devon is refreshingly bold in her beliefs – and her determination to make a difference.
That much is clear when FitzGerald, who recently broke Zola Budd’s national under-20 indoor 3,000m record by a staggering 16 seconds to earn selection for the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, is asked about how she travelled to the Netherlands.
It turns out the British squad, which was announced only last week, all flew. “But I do feel like I should have got the train,” says FitzGerald. “For me, it’s quite gutting that the whole team didn’t go together on the train, considering it’s so close and so easy to do.
“But I will continue to talk about environmental issues in the future, because it’s really important, and I strongly believe that we as athletes have a responsibility.”
FitzGerald first made headlines as a 16-year-old when she turned down the chance to compete in the world cross-country championships in Australia because of her concerns for the environment. So how does she feel when she has to fly nowadays?
“It’s never easy. I’m always thinking: ‘Oh, I shouldn’t be doing this.’ But I know that I’ve got to go to these championships to fill my dreams as a professional athlete. So it’s just about balancing that, and trying to do as much as I can in other areas of my life to make up for it.
“And even though I might be doing the wrong thing, just still saying that it’s wrong is better than just doing it and not saying it’s wrong.”
FitzGerald, who is in the first year of a sport and exercise science degree at Exeter University, believes politicians should be doing far more to tackle the climate crisis. “But I also feel like I have a responsibility to those directly affected by extreme weather, and to raise awareness for the situations they are in as a result of our actions,” she says.
Her direct action approach has even earned her a sobriquet: ‘the Greta Thunberg of sport.’ So what does she make of the comparison? “I think Greta is very inspirational. She has managed to mobilise so many young people. So I think it’s a compliment to be associated with her. If I can do anything near to what she’s done, then I’ll be very happy.”
This weekend, however, FitzGerald hopes to do her talking on the track. “There’s not too much pressure on me,” she says. “I’m just going to enjoy it, soak it all up, and get some experience competing against some of the best in the world. Hopefully, I’ll get into the final and compete for one of those medals.”
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But whatever happens, FitzGerald is clearly a major talent with plenty of room to improve, given she only took up running in her early teens during the pandemic.
“I’d go out four or five times a week for a half an hour, and build up some fitness. I didn’t really know racing was a thing. But when I went back to school after Covid, they were doing an initiative trying to get people a bit fitter. At the beginning of every PE lesson, we’d have to do 10 minutes running around the field. And my PE teacher was like: ‘Yeah, you’re quite good at this.’”
That teacher encouraged her to join a club, but the nearest one was a 45-minute drive away. “And there was no way my dad was going to take me there,” says FitzGerald. “It wasn’t until I did well at parkrun that we got in contact with my coach, Gavin Pavey, and I managed to persuade my dad to take me twice a week to the track.”
Pavey has some pedigree, having coached his wife, Jo, to five Olympic Games and European and Commonwealth medals. He is impressed with what he has seen, especially given FitzGerald still runs a low volume of miles each week.
“I don’t like bigging people up too much but Innes is very good,” he says. “She’s doing things that other young athletes at this stage haven’t done obviously, breaking that under-20 3,000m European indoor record. And to run 8min 40sec off the volume she’s doing is really pretty exciting.”
