The 2024 Summer Olympics in France are on their way, with the opening ceremony under way even now. The world’s best athletes will be competing in 329 events over the next two weeks in Paris and other locations. Being that it is summer, the temperatures are normally warm but they are forecasted to be in the 90s next week and possibly for longer.
France Wouldn’t Provide Air Conditioners for the Olympic Athletes
In a confrontational move, France had announced earlier that they would not be installing air conditioners in the Olympic village due to their “green policy”. Their efforts to keep athletes cool had been to install water pipes with cooled water that goes throughout the Village. But, the best guess on this is that the temperatures will be between 73-79 with fans (here is how this works). Still, this is not as similar as what the athletes are likely used to in training and post-workout to cool off.
There is no question that it is a lifelong pursuit to be in the Olympics and there are a number of training and recovery factors that help an athlete to perform at the top of the sport. Part of that does have to do with proper hydration and climate. With warm weather and no air conditioning in a city environment, it was almost a guarantee for muggy, hot temperatures in the rooms.
As they did in Japan, these Summer Olympics are using cardboard beds for the athletes. While that is a sustainable move, cardboard does not mix well with high humidity (at present, the evening humidity as of now is at a high 91%) and it loses its strength due to that. Put that together with the amount of time that athletes will be sleeping on them and the exposure to the high humidity without cooling and you have a recipe for possible problems in a week or so.
Putting on the Olympics is an expensive proposition. The budget for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games for France is right around $10 billion. When you consider the cost of providing air conditioning for over 10,000 athletes, that could have put the cost up even more. Yet, France stood on their “green policy” as the reason for not providing it.
However, they backed down on that policy when countries said they would pay for the air conditioning for their own athletes. So, countries like the US, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark, and Australia are doing just that – bringing and installing air conditioning for their athletes.
And this is not cheap! Reportedly, Australia paid $100,000 for air conditioners for their over 400 athletes. Remember, Australia is in their winter right now so their athletes had been in the 50s or so. Going from training in that to 90 degrees can take a toll on acclimation to temperatures and performance and Australia didn’t mind stepping up to make sure that would not be an issue for the downtime of their athletes.
However, there are many other countries that either cannot afford to or are choosing not to provide air conditioners. At this point, since France no longer is using their green policy as the reason for this, France should be doing something to make sure that the athletes can have air conditioning. I guess we will just have to see how well France’s water pipe solution works. If it doesn’t do a great job, there could definitely be some advantages for the athletes from countries with AC over the ones that didn’t/couldn’t provide it.
I was in Paris several years ago at this time of year and it was in the 90s – no matter if the athletes have air conditioning in the village or not, it will certainly be a hot week! We saw many people fading hard out on the streets during the days. Hope everyone stays cool and healthy!
