The U.S. Olympic team is one of the few to provide air conditioning for its athletes at the Paris Games, a move that could undermine organizers’ plans to reduce carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Federation CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that the U.S. team appreciates sustainability efforts but that the federation will supply air conditioning units to what is typically the largest contingent at a Summer Olympics.
“As you can imagine, consistency and predictability are critical to the U.S. team’s performance at this time of year,” Hirshland said. “In our discussions with the players, this was a very high priority and they felt it was an important component to their ability to perform.”
of The Washington Post reported. Earlier this month it was reported that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and the UK were among those planning to introduce air conditioning to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to use a system of under-floor cooling pipes to cool rooms in the Athletes’ Village, where more than 15,000 Olympic athletes and officials will stay during the Games.
The average high temperature in Paris on August 1st is 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
The goal is to keep the room temperature between 73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
The rooms are also equipped with electric fans.
“We want Paris to set an example from an environmental point of view,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said of the Olympic plans.
Fewer than one in 10 people, according to the International Energy Agency European Households The air-conditioned rooms are equipped with air conditioning, and the figures in Paris are lower.
Of the 1.6 billion air conditioners in use worldwide in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million), according to the study.
In the European Union as a whole the figure was about 100 million.
The Olympics will mark the most important milestone in the sporting careers of the more than 10,500 athletes gathering in Paris, leading some prominent countries to neglect environmental commitments in favor of comfort.
“This is a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strauss Gordon explained to The Washington Post.
