Last Games of summer? IOC boss says heat may force date change

The sun could be setting on the summer Games after International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said climate change may force future Olympics staged in the northern hemisphere to be held later in the year.

In his final press conference in Paris, Bach noted that hotter summers had already forced changes to Olympic scheduling, with the Tokyo marathon shifted to the cooler climate city of Sapporo and the Paris marathons given an early morning start time.

The sun sets on the beach volleyball competition beneath the Eiffel Tower.Credit: Getty Images

“We will have to speak about the dates because of climate change,” Bach said. “If climate change is continuing in the way the experts are forecasting then it will be very difficult to organise the Olympic Games in summer, in August. We have seen this already.

“This is not only true for us. This is true for the entire calendar of the international federations. We have to sit together and, regardless of where the Games are taking place, see whether the calendar has to be adapted, adjusted to climate change and global warming.”

Further studies were required to determine whether future summer Games in the northern hemisphere needed to be pushed into autumn. The result of that research is unlikely to impact the timing of the Games in Brisbane in 2032, which will be held in the Australian winter or early spring.

When Sydney hosted the Games in 2000, the opening ceremony was held on September 15. In Rio 2016, the most recent Olympics staged in the southern hemisphere, the Games began on August 5.

The Tokyo Games, staged in 2021, are officially the hottest since the modern Olympics began in 1896, with temperatures spiking above a humid 34 degrees.

Last year was the hottest on record, with average global temperatures 1.45 degrees above pre-industrial averages, and this year is on track to be even hotter. Bach said warmer average temperatures would also likely force a change to the Winter Olympics, which have traditionally been staged in February.

Most athletes have been untroubled by the heat in Paris, although some journalists have struggled.Credit: Konrad Marshall

Heat has not significantly impacted competition at the Paris Olympics. The most dramatic meteorological intervention was the rain that drenched the opening ceremony and forced the men’s triathlon to be delayed for a day because of sewage run-off into the Seine.

Bach paid tribute to the organisers of Paris 2024 and marvelled at the “miracle” of being able to bring the world together for peaceful sporting competition at a time of war in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

He also defended the IOC’s decision to allow two boxers to fight against women in Paris despite the organisation that oversees amateur boxing, the IBA, declaring them ineligible under the sport’s gender rules

The International Boxing Association says both athletes, Imane Khelif from Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, have XY chromosomes, which makes them ineligible to compete as women. Bach said neither the tests nor the IBA’s criteria were scientifically sound.

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