With the Summer Olympics in Paris a month away, air conditioning is a hot topic.
In their efforts to host what they call the “greenest Games of all time,” organizers have opted not to install air conditioning at the complex where thousands of athletes and officials will remain for the season.
Instead, the athletes’ village will be cooled by a formula of water pipes running through the ground.
“This village was designed to avoid the need for air conditioning, even at very, very high temperatures, to achieve comfortable temperatures,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in March.
France is one of the European countries that experienced record heatwaves last summer, the likes of which have never been recorded on the continent. More than 5,000 people died in France last year due to excessive heat.
Densely populated Paris has the threat of heat-related deaths more than any European city. And a new report warns that peak temperatures may pose a fatal threat to Olympic athletes this year.
Authorities aim to keep rooms between 73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit and will also provide fans.
But the reaction of many competing countries has been cold.
An increasing number of them are offering their athletes portable equipment, and the United States is one of them.
Sarah Hirshland, executive director of the U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), showed at a briefing Friday that members of the U. S. team will have air conditioning in their rooms.
“In our conversations with athletes, this is a very high priority and anything that athletes see as a critical component of their ability to perform, as well as the predictability and consistency of what they’re used to,” he said, adding that the committee has “great respect” for the organizers’ focus on sustainability.
When asked who would be in charge of the air conditioners, Hirshland replied, “I, the USOPC, am guilty of it. “
The lack of air conditioning is the only issue of complaint this week. Parisians threatened to defecate in the Seine River on Sunday to protest sewage pollution after reports revealed harmful levels of E bacteria. coli in the water less than two months before the start of the Olympic swimming competitions.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Canada, Britain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark and Australia were among the countries that were contemplating installing portable air conditioners in some or all of their athletes’ rooms.
The leaders of some of those countries have publicly stated that they plan to bring them themselves or bring them to France.
Spyros Capralos, president of the Greek Olympic Committee, said they would “spare no expense” for their athletes and would buy air conditioners or a sponsor to cover them, EuroNews reported earlier this year.
Australian officials, meanwhile, are spending more than $100,000 to keep athletes cool.
“We like the concept of having air conditioning because of the carbon footprint,” Matt Carroll of the Australian Olympic Committee said last year. “But those are games of maximum functionality. Let’s have a picnic.
Japanese officials have also said they are considering paying for athletes’ air conditioning, for “safety” reasons. They told the Japan Times last week that they had placed orders through organizers’ travel cards, a list of additional gadgets that were given to delegations at an additional price.
However, not all countries can afford a lower temperature for sleeping.
“We don’t have the monetary means,” Donald Rukare, president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, told the Post.
Hidalgo, who opposes countries bringing their own units, said earlier this year that Paris organizers would not replace the course.
“I think we have to accept the science as true on two things,” he said. “The first is what scientists tell us about the fact that we are on the edge of the abyss. Everyone, including athletes, wants to be aware “And secondly, we have to accept as true that scientists help us to build sober buildings that allow us to do without air conditioning. “
The 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were the ones of history, with many competitors fainting and vomiting at the finish line, being transported in wheelchairs, and openly expressing concern about dying from the heat.
Researchers warn that temperatures could be even higher this year.
An organization of scientists and athletes from around the world joined forces to warn of heat-related dangers in its second report on the Rings of Fire, released last week.
The 37-page report features predictions from scientists about maximum temperatures in Paris, testimonies from athletes about the effects of competing in excessive heat conditions and several key requests to organizers of summer sports competitions.
This includes avoiding scheduling occasions at daylight hours and reevaluating their sponsorships with fossil fuel companies.
“For athletes, from minor performance-impacting issues such as sleep disruptions and last-minute adjustments to occasion schedules, to exacerbated fitness effects and heat-related stresses and injuries, the consequences can be diverse and widespread,” said Lord Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, writing in the introduction: “As global temperatures continue to rise, climate change is increasingly perceived as an existential risk to sport. “
The report notes that annual temperatures in Paris have risen by about 3. 24 degrees Fahrenheit since the city last hosted the Olympics a century ago, in 1924, and that average temperatures during the months of the Olympics have warmed more than 5. 58 degrees during that period.
He then highlights some of the physical and physiological effects of competing in hot conditions, from heat cramps to heat stroke, cognitive impairment and compromised cardiovascular function.
It also highlights temperature limits at sports venues in Paris and includes quotes from athletes about their reports beyond competing in such conditions.
“To me, it’s like you’re preparing for the worst facet of a bad flu: chills and strange sensations, hot and cold,” said tennis player Marcus Daniell of New Zealand. “Your brain can’t concentrate and your mouth is extraordinarily dry. And the harmful thing is that athletes don’t know when to stop, because we are regularly conditioned to push our limits.
Air conditioning is much less unusual in Europe than in the United States, and particularly rare in France.
Less than a quarter of French families had air conditioning in 2022, while in the United States barely 90%.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that organizers studied heat waves block by block of athletes’ village and simulated those situations to test their cooling system.
“Even though temperatures reached 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), we had temperatures of 28 degrees (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in a maximum of those rooms,” said Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages. “In other rooms, obviously “I had lower temperatures. “
He said athletes will want to meet some fundamental requirements, such as keeping the blinds closed during the day, to maximize freshness.
Hidalgo, who has pledged to make Paris’ climate neutral by 2050, said that compared to a traditional project, the carbon effect of the Athletes’ Village will be reduced by 45 percent during construction and throughout the Olympic cycle.
Between July and September, the village will host 15,600 Olympians and sports officials and 9,000 Paralympic athletes and teams, according to the AP.
Subsequently, the 125-acre site will become an “environmentally friendly, zero-carbon residential and advertising district. “
The first of its 6,000 new inhabitants are expected to move there as early as 2025. And even with the Olympics approaching, Hidalgo is ahead.
“What worries me is that those buildings, those apartments are a community where other people from L’Ile-Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis (in the suburbs of Paris) will live,” he told Reuters in March. These new buildings will not need air conditioning, so we are thinking about the long term. “
This history has been updated to reflect, as it should be, the warming of Paris since 1924.