Paris Olympics 2024: Athletes’ village will have no aircon in first look reveal

The athletes’ village is facing a strict overhaul for next year’s Olympics and there’s one vital thing missing from all the bedrooms. FIRST LOOK PHOTOS

Australian competitors believe the decision by Paris 2024 Olympic Games officials to remove air-conditioning from the athletes’ village could play into their hands, as rivals from colder countries struggle to adjust.

French Games authorities have decided to have a “Green Games” and have taken air-conditioning out of the village to reduce carbon emissions. Only problem is, France and the rest of Europe is sweltering through record-breaking heatwaves right now.

With climate change needing urgent action, the lack of air-conditioning will be good for the planet but potentially wreak havoc for the preparation of athletes.

However, Tokyo gold medallist rower Lucy Stephan says stifling hot rooms will be a bonus for Australian athletes.

Thomas Bach inside the village

“If it is really hot, hopefully there’s fans and other ways around it, having cold showers before bed, but I think as Aussies we’ve got to use it to our advantage,” Stephan told this masthead.

“It’s bloody hot over here in summer, and you saw in Tokyo, we played Tokyo to our advantage in the heat and humidity and time zones.

“All of those things factored into why we had one of our most successful Olympics ever.

“So if the rooms in the village are hot, well I feel like that’s an advantage for us as Aussies. We know how to deal with that, and if we can go into it with that mindset, that it’s an advantage, it’s only going to work out in a good way.”

Stephan will be chasing a second successive Olympic gold in Paris in the coxless four.

Australia’s hope in the new Olympic event of breakdancing, Rachael Gunn, does have concerns about the impact of the heat.

“That’ll be really tough, I don’t know how we can expect to perform at our peak and our best if we’re also in heat stress,” Gunn said.

“I think that’s certainly something they need to look into.”

Australian Olympic Team chef de mission Anna Meares visited the athletes’ village last week and says many avenues are being explored to make life comfortable during the Games.

General view of the athlete village for Paris 2024

“Our athletes are going to be well versed in dealing with heat, and understanding its effects,” said Meares, speaking on Wednesday at an AOC event marking one year until the Games begin.

“But we also have a really good high performance team that’s led by Alex Baumann and our medical team that’s led by Dr Carolyn Broderick who are working to put in heat mitigation strategies for our sports and athletes.

“And it’s not just for them who are in the village, we’ve got up to 150 athletes spread around the eight subsites and satellite villages spread around France as well, we’ve got to ensure right across the board we’re looking after everyone who is there to compete.

“It’s all about giving them the chance to be in the best possible shape, head and body, for comp day.

“I got to go into our building and some of our bedrooms in the village while I was in Paris last week, it wasn’t on a terribly hot day, but it was a comfortable space to be in.

“I actually felt really good that I could take that information back to the athletes.

“Fans will be provided in every room, there’s underwater cooling in the floors, they’re doing all sorts of things with insulation in the walls, shutters on all the windows as well, and they’re going to be looking at options around air-conditioning, it’s available for teams, we’ll take that to the AOC operations team and see what we can do to support them.”

One fan for two athletes in Paris summer

No aircon but it’s OK there’s a fan

The draconian rules of booze and loud music bans, implemented inside the village during a Covid-plagued Tokyo Olympics, will continue in Paris as the PC fun police run riot.

Olympians have already been subjected to strict rules, including the stipulation that all late-night parties must take place outside the village.

The AOC has also vowed to kick athletes out of the village if they don’t adhere to the rules.

It means athletes won’t be able to recreate memorable scenes like when the Australian Boomers basketball team celebrated hard after claiming a historic maiden bronze medal at the Tokyo Games.

Under the new deal, athletes will also have to vacate the village within 48 hours of their events finishing.

Despite July temperatures in Paris sometimes rising above 40 degrees, the International Olympic Committee president is confident that athletes will sleep comfortably in their non-airconditioned accommodation at next year’s event.

“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,” Mr Thomas Bach told reporters, during a visit to the site.

general view of the athlete village for Paris 2024

Paris, like many European cities, has experienced extremely hot summers in recent years, with temperatures rising to 43 degrees in July last year.

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

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

Mr 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 that even with temperatures of 38 degree outside they will be able to keep temperatures down to 26-28 degree Celsius inside, with the help of fans, which are included in the carbon footprint calculations.

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

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

Bach, though, is confident the beds will be comfortable.

“They will be very happy. I have even had an opportunity to test a bed and I can assure them they will sleep very well in these beds,” said Mr Bach.