Despite the city’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the United States Olympic teams and multiple other countries will reportedly bring their own air conditioning units to the Paris Games.
Organizers for the Paris Olympic Games are attempting to significantly reduce the amount of carbon emissions produced by the games following the International Olympic Committee’s recognition of the event’s environmental impact, according to USA Today.
Previous Olympic Games have produced an average of 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, but the current organizers are determined to cut this number in half during the Paris Games.
Rather than using air conditioning units throughout the Olympic Village, which will hold roughly 15,000 athletes, organizers have opted to use a system of cooling pipes to manage the temperatures in rooms, according to Fox News.
While multiple countries have voiced concerns about the potentially warm conditions within the village rooms, Olympic and Paralympic Villages director Laurent Michaud said last year that the current air conditioning system works incredibly well when tested in a warm weather simulator.
“Despite outdoor temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), we had temperatures at 28 degrees (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in most of these rooms,” said Michaud, as reported by the Associated Press. “In other rooms, we clearly had lower temperatures.”
Michaud also said at the time that air conditioning units would be available for certain athletes who struggle to regulate their body temperature, noting that many of these athletes will come from the Paralympic Games.
“It will be on a case-by-case basis, and for health and safety of the athletes,” he said, per AP.
Nonetheless, the U.S. remains steadfast in its plans to bring portable air conditioning units to the Olympic Village.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland confirmed last week that the U.S. teams “will have air conditioning in the rooms in the village,” adding that the team has “great respect for the work that’s been done by the Paris Organizing Committee in particular” but the needs of the athletes will come first.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” she explained, per Fox News.
“In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The U.S. is not alone in its plans to bring portable air conditioning units to the Olympic Village. Great Britain, Canada, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Australia, and Germany all plan to bring units along as well, The Washington Post reported.
However, many have become concerned about seemingly more pressing pollution issues regarding the Paris Olympics, with a focus on whether the Seine River will even be usable by the time the games begin.
A study on the river found that the water contained high levels of the illness-inducing bacteria E. coli, which indicates that fecal matter was likely present in the water when the samples were collected from June 10 to 16, as reported by NBC News.
Paris intends to have Olympians compete in the Seine River during events such as swimming and triathlon. The first event is scheduled to take place on July 30.
However, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has already claimed that the water is already safe to swim in, promising to get in herself before the athletes do as proof. She was set to do so on Sunday but canceled, telling NBC on Wednesday that the change of plans had to do with the weather and her busy election season.
