‘I wish we’d taken the train’: athlete Innes FitzGerald welcomes Thunberg comparisons

Innes FitzGerald in training for the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty Images for European Athletics

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 this year has lowered Zola Budd’s longstanding indoor 3,000m record by a staggering 16 seconds on her way to earning 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 fulfil my dreams as a professional athlete.

“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 studies sport and exercise science at Exeter, comes from a farming family. Her father, Joe, was once arrested after staging a sit-down protest on Honiton high street, wearing a sandwich board stating: “I’m terrified for the future of all our children”, and Innes has also been on an Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square.

“I 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 explains. 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.”

The 18-year-old will have to wait until to run, but the British team made a good start to the championships with bronze in the mixed 4x400m relay behind the Netherlands and Belgium. Georgia Hunter Bell also eased into the women’s 1500m final. FitzGerald plans to follow suit. “Hopefully I’ll get into the final and compete for a medal,” she says.

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.”