A group of French athletes have scaled Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in France but which studies have found is melting due to global warming ©Getty Images

A group of French Olympic athletes scaled the Mer de Glace - the largest glacier in France - in a bid to raise awareness of global warming.

Martin Thomas, a 2021 world canoeing champion and who finished fifth in the men’s C1 event at Tokyo 2020, was among those that took part in the trek, called "Sport for Future".

The Mer de Glace, also known as Sea of Ice, is 7.54 kilometres long and 200m deep and situated on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif.

Thomas admitted that sports needed to do more to help reduce their carbon footprint after seeing the impact of climate change.

"High-level sport is far from being exemplary in limiting the phenomenon," said Thomas in a report by French newspaper Le Parisien.

"We fly too much, for example.

"We must therefore change mentalities.

"Today, we walked on a glacier with crampons.

"We saw the ice melt.

"It’s a much more memorable experience than a simple conference.

"Awareness is all the stronger."

The group of athletes who scaled Mer de Glace hope that other top sports personalities like judo superstar Teddy Riner will join their initiative
The group of athletes who scaled Mer de Glace hope that other top sports personalities like judo superstar Teddy Riner will join their initiative "Sport for the Future" ©Facebook

Thomas said he hoped French judo legend Teddy Riner and five-time world swimming champion Léon Marchand would joined the "Sport for Future" initiative.

Rugby player Fulgence Ouedraogo, diver Benjamin Auffret, fencer Faustine Clapier and sport climber Naïlé Meignan participated in the Mer de Glace trek along with Thomas.

"Top athletes are part of the problem of global warming," said mountain runner Xavier Thévenard.

"On the other hand, as they are very publicised, very followed on social networks, athletes can on the contrary inspire people to limit their carbon footprint by adopting behaviours that are more respectful of the environment."