Team USA among those bringing AC to Paris Olympics: NPR

One month after the Summer Olympics in Paris, air conditioning is an increasingly hot topic.

In their effort to host what they are calling “the greenest Games ever”, organizers decided not to install air conditioning in the complex where thousands of athletes and officials will stay throughout the season.

Instead, the athletes’ village will be cooled by a system of water pipes running beneath the floorboards.

“The village was designed to avoid the need for air conditioning to maintain a comfortable temperature even in extreme temperatures,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in March.

France was among the European countries that saw a record-breaking heat wave last summer, the hottest ever recorded on the continent. More than 5,000 people died in France last year due to extreme heat.

Densely populated Paris has the highest risk of heat-related deaths of any European city. And a new report warns that high temperatures this year could pose a deadly threat to Olympians.

Officials aim to keep rooms between 73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit, and will also provide fans.

But the reaction of many competing countries has not been cold at all.

A growing number of countries are planning to provide portable units to their athletes – and the US is one of them.

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) CEO Sarah Hirshland confirmed at a Friday briefing that Team USA members will have air conditioning in their rooms.

“In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and athletes felt it was a key component in their performance ability and the predictability and consistency of what they are accustomed to,” he said. “Great respect” for the organizers’ focus on sustainability.

Asked who would supply the air conditioners, Hirshland said, “I believe USOPC is responsible for them.”

The lack of AC isn’t the only subject of criticism this week. Parisians threatened to defecate in the Seine River on Sunday in protest against sewage pollution after reports found unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria in the water, less than two months before the start of the Olympic swimming competitions.

Who else is bringing AC?

The Olympic village painted in Saint-Denis in December. After the Games, it will become home to approximately 6,000 full-time residents.

Michelle Euler/AP

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Michelle Euler/AP

Washington Post It was reported earlier this month that Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark and Australia are among the countries planning to use portable air conditioners in some or all of their athletes’ rooms.

Leaders of some of those countries have said publicly that they plan to either bring the units themselves or receive them in France.

Euronews reported earlier this year that Greece’s Olympic Committee president Spiros Kapralos said they would “spare no expense” for their athletes and would either buy air conditioners or find a sponsor to cover them.

Australian officials, for their part, are spending more than $100,000 to keep the athletes quiet.

“We appreciate the concept of not having air conditioning because of the carbon footprint,” Australian Olympic Committee chief Matt Carroll told reporters last year. “But it is a high-performance sport. We are not going for a picnic.”

Japanese officials have also said they plan to pay for air conditioning for the athletes for “safety and security” reasons. He told The Japan Times last week that he placed the orders through organizers’ rate card, which is a list of add-on features available to delegations at additional cost.

However, not all countries can afford to pay for lower sleeping temperatures.

“We don’t have much money,” Ugandan Olympic Committee president Donald Rukare told the Post.

Hidalgo, who is against countries bringing their own units, insisted earlier this year that Paris organizers would not change their stance.

“I think we have to trust the science on two counts,” he said. “First of all, scientists are alerting us to the fact that we are on the brink of an abyss. Everyone should be aware of this, including athletes. And secondly, we have to trust scientists when they help us build buildings in a cool way that allows us to work without air conditioning.

Experts warn of extreme temperatures and risks to athletes

The Olympic mascot, called Freeze, stands on a balcony during the inauguration of the Olympic village in Villeneuve d’Esc near Lille in the north of France, where the basketball and handball teams will stay.

Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images

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Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images

The 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were the hottest in history, with several competitors fainting and vomiting at the finish line, being wheeled away in wheelchairs and apparently fearing they would die from the heat.

Researchers have warned that temperatures could be even higher this year.

A group of scientists and athletes from around the world warned about the dangers of the heat in their second Rings of Fire report released last week.

The 37-page report outlines scientists’ predictions for higher temperatures in Paris, testimonials from athletes about the effects of competing in extreme heat, and several key requests for organizers of summer sports competitions.

These include avoiding scheduling events at the hottest times of the day and reevaluating our sponsorship with fossil fuel companies.

World President Lord Sebastian Coe said: “For athletes, the impact on performance ranges from small issues such as sleep disruption and last-minute event time changes, to health impacts and heat-related stress and injury. “The consequences can be diverse and wide-ranging.” Athletics, writes in the introduction. “While global temperatures continue to rise, climate change must be viewed as an existential threat to sport.”

The report said annual temperatures in Paris have risen by nearly 35 degrees since the city last hosted the Olympics in 1924, and the average temperature during Olympic months in that time has risen by more than 37 degrees.

It details some of the physical and physiological effects of competing in hot conditions, ranging from heat cramps to heat stroke, cognitive impairment to compromised cardiovascular function.

It also highlights the temperature limits at Paris venues for specific sports and includes quotes from athletes about their past experiences competing in such conditions.

New Zealand tennis player Marcus Daniell said, “To me it’s like you’re in preparation for the worst phase of bad flu – shivering and weird and hot and cold.” “Your mind can’t concentrate and your mouth is disgustingly dry. And the dangerous thing is that athletes often don’t know when to stop, because we are bound to push ourselves beyond the limits as a rule.

The village will become housing after the games

A living room in the Olympic Village, photographed in February. Thousands of athletes and officials will be based there between July and September during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Thibault Camus/AP

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Thibault Camus/AP

Air conditioning is much less common in Europe than in the US, and is especially rare in France.

By 2022, less than a quarter of homes in France had AC, while about 90% of homes in the US had AC.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that organizers were studying heatwaves block by block throughout the athletes’ village and simulated those conditions to test their cooling systems.

“Despite the temperature outside reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), the temperature in most of our rooms was 28 degrees (82 degrees Fahrenheit),” said Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages. “In other rooms, we had obviously lower temperatures.”

He said athletes will need to follow some basic requirements to maximize cooling, such as keeping curtains closed during the day.

Hidalgo – who has pledged to make Paris climate-neutral by 2050 – said the Athletes Village’s carbon impact would be reduced by 45% during construction and throughout the Olympic cycle, compared to a conventional project.

Between July and September, the village will host 15,600 Olympic athletes and sports officials and 9,000 Paralympic athletes and support teams, according to the AP.

Subsequently, the 125-acre site will become a “zero-carbon, eco-friendly residential and commercial neighbourhood”.

The first of its 6,000 new residents are due to arrive in 2025. And even with the Olympics fast approaching, Hidalgo is thinking ahead.

“What matters to me is that these buildings, these flats, will become a neighborhood where the communities of L’Île-Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Saint-Denis (in the Paris suburbs) are located,” he told Reuters in March. People will stay.” “These new buildings will not require air conditioning, so we are working for the long term.”