2024 Paris Olympics: USA and several other countries install air conditioning in Olympic Village and ridicule the organization's 'sustainable' agenda
The U.S. delegation bought up to 300 cooling machines to preserve the health and performance of their athletes. Countries such as Australia, Canada and Iceland also ignored the woke regulations.
File image of an air conditioning unit.
The U.S. delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games decided to bypass the sustainability rules imposed by Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo months before the athletes arrived at the Olympic Village. The country decided to buy a total of 300 air conditioning units to keep its athletes in optimal conditions.
The reason? According to the executive director of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Sarah Hirshland, these air conditioners were necessary for the proper performance of the athletes:
"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, and the predictability and consistency of what they're accustomed to."
But why Paris did not install air conditioning? The decision, explained public radio station NPR, was made by the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo.
She decided that her city would host "the greenest ever Games" and, to that end, among other measures, decided that she would not install any air-conditioning system in the Olympic Village.
Instead, the temperature would be maintained through the installation of water pipes that would be placed under the floor to try to maintain the temperature between 6 and 10 degrees below the temperature outside:
"This village was designed to avoid the need for air conditioning, even in very, very high temperatures, in order to maintain comfortable temperatures."
But what the mayor did not foresee was that her measure would be met not only with the rejection of the U.S. delegation, but many other countries that have preferred to spend up to $100,000 to keep their athletes cool.
Nations like Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland and Australia have also allocated part of their economic resources to bring their own air conditioning equipment to the Olympic Village.
All of them have argued that they made this decision to offer greater safety to their athletes facing an Olympic Games where the high temperatures typical of the month of August have caused many of them difficulty.
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