Athletes' concerns mount as Paris Olympics approach without air conditioning

While the 2024 Paris Olympics approach in two weeks, the lack of air conditioning is still a concern for most national Olympic teams.

Designed to be eco-friendly Olympic Games, organizers said on Tuesday that the Paris Olympic Village will be fitted with 2,500 temporary cooling units instead of air conditioning when athletes arrive later this month. The cooling unit will be a geothermal cooling system that uses cool water pumped from deep beneath the ground.

The village comprises 7,000 rooms in total, with the geothermal cooling system guaranteeing temperatures inside at least 6 degrees Celsius below those outside.

The decision to keep athletes cool at the 2024 Games without air conditioners came in late March, but it encountered many opposing voices from some national Olympic teams.

The US Olympic and Paralympics CEO Sarah Hirshland said in late June that the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games, while Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada, and Britain were also among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.

As a compromise, organizers allowed teams to order portable air-conditioning units at their own expense, which can be installed from July 26 to August 11.

Augustin Tran Van Chau, the deputy director of the village, told journalists during a media visit to the Olympic Village on Tuesday that they have ordered around 2500 ACs to provide "a very specific solution" for athletes who might have requirements for their comfort and recovery in a hot summer.

According to the French National Weather Service, temperatures this summer are expected to be warmer than normal.

"Rings of Fire," a report released by The British Association for Sustainable Sport and FrontRunners last month and backed by leading climate scientists and athletes, warned about the dangers posed by extremely high temperatures at the Paris Olympics.

The report said that sleep disruption due to heat has been cited in the build-up to the 2024 Games as a major concern by athletes, especially given the lack of air conditioning in the Olympic Village.

The plan without air conditioning is part of the organizing committee's goal to cut the carbon footprint of the Paris Games by half and stage the most sustainable Olympics to date.

"I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has previously said in her plans for the Olympics.

Everything built for the Olympic Village was done with sustainability in mind. Organizers retrofitted several existing structures on the site instead of constructing all the buildings, and all the newly constructed buildings were built with wood and recycled materials, which is said to reduce the project's carbon footprint by 30 percent per square meter.

Inside the apartment, the beds and the mattresses were manufactured with reused materials, and the stools were made with cardboard.

Georgina Grenon, the Paris 2024 director of sustainability, said the village was thought up as a neighborhood that's going to have a life afterward.

Once the Paralympics have finished in September, the village will be converted into office space for 6000 workers and apartments to house another 6000 people, hoping to alleviate a housing crisis in the French capital.