Olympic Games: a new report warns of the dangers of heat

“Intense heat during the Paris Olympics in July and August 2024 could cause some athletes to collapse or even die“, warns the Rings of Fire report, co-written by the NGO Climate Central, British academics from Portsmouth and 11 Olympic athletes,

The Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11. In recent years, the city has been hit by heat waves and heatwaves.

Last summer, more than 5,000 people died in France due to heat, according to data from Public Health France.

A study published in May in the journal Lancet Planet Health found that Paris had the highest heat death rate among 854 European cities, due to its dense population and limited green space.

The Rings of Fire report calls on organizers of major competitions, such as the Games or the FIFA World Cup, which usually take place at the height of summer in the northern hemisphere, to rethink their calendar.

Disturbed sleep

The study also encourages organizing committees to improve rehydration and cooling plans for athletes and fans to avoid the risk of heat stroke.

More than high temperatures, it is the incessant rain that is currently worrying organizers, with regular downpours in May and June leading to unusually strong currents in the Seine and poor water quality.

Paris 2024 organizers say they have built some flexibility into their program so they can move events such as the marathon or triathlon to avoid mid-day heat peaks.

But spectators will mostly gather in temporary stands which will not be shaded, while the Olympic village was built without air conditioning in order to reduce its carbon footprint.

A growing number of athletes have called for an adaptation of their programs to take into account the physical constraints linked to the increase in temperatures caused by global warming, according to the study.

“Sleep disruption due to heat has been cited in the build-up to the 2024 Games as a major concern for athletes, particularly due to the lack of air conditioning in the Olympic Village“, the report said.

Olympic teams were offered the option of installing portable air conditioning units in their accommodation, which many accepted.

“New normal”

Indian triathlete Pragnya Mohan, cited by the report, said she left her home country to escape high temperatures.

“With climate change, heat has increased significantly“, Pragnya Mohan told the press. “I can’t train in my country. It’s one of the reasons why I moved to the UK“.

During the Tokyo Games, considered the hottest on record, temperatures regularly exceeded 30° with humidity of 80%. Organizers had moved the walking events and the two marathons 800 km north of the Japanese capital in the hope of cooler weather.

Despite a series of anti-heat measures, including misting stations, many athletes suffered, such as Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev who wondered aloud on court if he was going to die.

After Tokyo, International Association of Athletics Federations president Sebastian Coe, who wrote a foreword for the report, warned that competing in “very harsh climatic conditions” was the “new normal”.

Slide: The 10 commandments for doing sports in summer