Olympic athletes will sleep well without air-con in Paris, says IOC president

PARIS – Despite July temperatures in Paris sometimes rising above 40 deg C, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is confident that athletes will sleep comfortably in their non-air-conditioned accommodation at the 2024 Games, he said on Tuesday.

“The organising committee has taken great efforts and many measures so that they can produce minus 6 degrees compared to the outside temperature, maybe even more,” Thomas Bach added during a visit to the site.

Paris, like many European cities, has experienced extremely hot summers in recent years, with temperatures exceeding 40 deg C in July 2022.

But Bach said that he was not concerned about heatwaves affecting the comfort of the 15,000 athletes expected at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as the IOC also had to deal with high temperatures and humidity during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

“We will benefit from this experience when it comes to Paris,” he added.

Paris 2024 organisers have decided not to install air-conditioning in the athletes’ village, in order to limit the carbon footprint of the Games.

Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages for Paris 2024, said that it would not be necessary as “with the insulation of the buildings, we can contain the coolness of the night until late the next day and that helps keep an acceptable temperature inside”.

He added that they estimated even with temperatures of 38 deg C outside, they will be able to keep temperatures down to 26-28 deg C inside, with the help of fans, which are included in the carbon footprint calculations.

The organisers have carried out thermodynamic simulations of the room temperatures, which they have not yet tested.

To reduce waste and transport costs, the organisers have also opted for recyclable cardboard bed frames, which can hold around 140kg.

“They will be very happy,” said Bach, who spent 15 minutes visiting the site in Saint-Denis to the north of Paris and declared the village to be “extremely well planned” and “very compact”.

“I have even had an opportunity to test a bed and I can assure them they will sleep very well in these beds.”

Later, he sailed down the River Seine to get a taste of the unprecedented opening ceremony for the Games.

The ceremony will take the event out of its traditional stadium setting and onto more than 100 boats that will carry teams along the River Seine past the Eiffel Tower.

Bach also got his hands on the newly unveiled Olympic torch, a sleek design made of recycled steel by ArcelorMittal.

Usain Bolt, the retired Jamaican sprinter who won eight Olympic gold medals, also tried out the torch and promised: “I will be here next year with my family.”
REUTERS, AFP