The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “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.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
I have a wild idea here. What if, they didn’t build an entire Olympic sports complex with multiple stadiums and other infrastructure every 2 years around the globe? Maybe that would save a bit on carbon emissions. And hey, the billions that would have gone to building that complex? Maybe that could go toward building up renewable energy resources instead.
But no that’s crazy, it’s the portable air conditioning units for some athlete’s apartments that are the problem. /s
Though some props to Paris, it sounds like they didn’t have nearly the amount of insane new constructions that some Olympics have had. Sounds like only one major new venue with most venues being used already pre-existing.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2024/02/11/paris-2024-unveils-only-purpose-built-olympics-venue-in-city-five-months-ahead-of-summer-games/72561147007/
Just hold it in Greece every time. Those poor fuckers could use some foreign money coming in every few years, they might not have to work 6 days a week then.
Greece is too warm now for summer games, it’s significantly hotter than Paris right now and can hit a sustained over 40c without much problem. Paris isn’t great in the summer but it’s better than Greece. If we want one location to host the games during the summer then I pick Bergen, significantly cooler than Paris.
What if they didn’t do the “summer” games in the middle of summer?
Then the Winter games would get all huffy and not speak to them anymore, that’s probably the only reason.
One of the hottest places in Europe, atm.
By all means, it wouldn’t hurt to build high efficiency stadiums and sports centers the one time in a big “Olympics Zone” that gets used regularly rather than building a big new thing every two years at a random spot in the world. But if you’re looking for maximal efficiency, Greece ain’t your girl. Its cooking at record-breaking 46.4°C temperatures over there, weeks before the games even start.
Might as well make Qatar the permanent venue for the World Cup.
There was just an article posted around here about future games in Los Angeles …. Where one of the venues is in Oklahoma, unless I got seriously trolled, for exactly this: trying not to build as much new stuff.
Here in Boston when they were talking about putting in a bid, all the discussion was about upgrading athletic facilities for all the regional colleges, and getting more hotels built to handle more tourism
It was far more nuanced than that. They also wanted their own lane on 91 so they wouldn’t have to deal with Boston traffic.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2015/06/30/boston-2024-olympic-lanes/
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/sports/olympics/bostons-revised-24-bid-criticized-as-incomplete.html?_r=0
Never been more proud to go tell the IOC to go fuck themselves with a huge cactus.
Those all sound like good things, though. There shouldn’t be an interstate right through downtown. And god knows transportation in Boston is a mess and desperately needs work.
Right, plus in the context of not building new stuff for a temporary need