Paris Olympics 2024 organizers enable teams to order portable AC units

Paris Olympics 2024 village will have 2500 temporary cooling units when athletes arrive later this month, according to the organizers. Notably, the Paris 2024 officials are aiming to reduce its total carbon emissions to half the level of previous editions in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

However, the lack of AC units has worried a few national Olympic teams, whose athletes are concerned about missing sleep due to the summer temperatures in Paris.

For the same, the Paris Olympics 2024 organizers enabled teams to order portable air-conditioning units at their own expense, which will be installed for the duration of the campaign scheduled between July 26 and August 11.

“The aim was to provide a very specific solution for athletes who are facing the match or competition of their lives... and who might have requirements for their comfort and recovery which are higher than in a normal summer,” the deputy director of the village, Augustin Tran Van Chau, said on Tuesday, July 2.

“Around 2,500 ACs have been ordered,” he told journalists during a visit to the village for the media.

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Several national Olympic teams have put pressure

According to reports, multiple national Olympic teams have put pressure on the Paris Olympics 2024 organizers to have AC units inside the athletes' rooms.

Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll told Australian media last year that although he appreciated the concept, they’re not going for a picnic.

“We appreciate the concept of not having air conditioning due to the carbon footprint. Tthis is a high-performance Games. We’re not going for a picnic,” he stated.

Teams from Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada have said they will pay for AC for their athletes.

Earlier in February 2023, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who heads the Olympics infrastructure group Solideo, had ruled out using portable AC units in the village.

“I have a lot of respect for the comfort of athletes, but I think a lot more about the survival of humanity,” she told French radio station France Info.

The low-rise towers in the athletes' village will host around 10,000 Olympians during Paris Olympics 2024, and then 5,000 Paralympians during the Paralympic Games.