Despite Olympic organizers’ environmental plans to reduce carbon emissions, the U.S. Olympic team and several other national athletic federations plan to provide air conditioning for their athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Organizers are moving ahead with plans to install under-floor cooling pipes to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, where more than 15,000 Olympic athletes and officials will stay during the Summer Games. Associated Press.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that she appreciates the U.S. team’s efforts to address sustainability, but the committee plans to supply air conditioning units to U.S. athletes during the Summer Olympics.
“We will have air conditioning in the rooms in the athletes’ village,” Hirshland said. “I have a lot of respect for what the Paris Organizing Committee has done, especially with regards to sustainability, and I know there have been a lot of questions about the consistency of that effort and the installation of air conditioning.”
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The U.S. Olympic team and several other national sports federations plan to provide air conditioning for athletes at the Paris Olympics this summer. (AP Photo/Aurélien Molissard, File)
“As you can imagine, consistency and predictability are critical to the U.S. team’s performance at this time of year,” Hirshland continued. “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.”
Countries planning to bring air conditioners to the Paris Games include Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Washington Post Japan is also reportedly considering sending troops for its athletes.
The average high temperature in Paris on August 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit), and the organizers’ environmental plan aims to keep indoor temperatures between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius (73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit). Electric fans will also be installed inside, according to the plan.
American swimmer Lilly King gets engaged shortly after qualifying for the Olympics in the 200-meter breaststroke
Pictured is a bedroom in the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. (Associated Press)
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“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 households in Europe owns an air conditioner, and even fewer in Paris, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The agency also said that 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), with the European Union alone accounting for around 100 million.
Additionally, France had to spend $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine in preparation for the aquatic events at the Summer Olympics because the river was so polluted it was unusable. According to Newsweek:.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
