The U.S. Olympic team, along with several other athletes, Bringing a Portable Air Conditioner to Paris Construction of a hotel has been halted as the city prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, despite efforts by the city to provide cool hotel rooms at the expense of reducing carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said of the group’s decision, “As you can imagine, this is a time when consistency and predictability are critical to the performance of the U.S. team. In discussions with our athletes, this was a very high priority and they felt it was an important factor in their ability to perform.” But Hirshland praised Paris’ commitment to environmental “sustainability.”
Those efforts include plans to pipe chilled water onto the floors of the Olympic Village and provide electric fans for the athletes.
Europeans are famously despising air conditioning, but most of the rest of the world lives much closer to the equator and farther from cool coastlines than Europe. For reference, Rome, Italy is one of the southernmost major European cities and is actually just north of New York City. It’s estimated that less than one in 10 homes in Paris has an air conditioner.
Still, the U.S. delegation is not the only one to reject France’s claim that cool floors are sufficient to maintain peak athletic performance. Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom also support the idea. Plans to bring portable units to Paris.
According to the Associated Press, countries that do so are “unfairly[ting] “Environmental Initiatives for Comfort”
Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strauss Gordon rejected the term, saying the Olympics is a “high performance arena” and that for many athletes it is their only opportunity to compete and they want to perform at their best.
