The Olympic Games to be held in Paris this summer could be marked not only by sporting but also by weather records. Scientists have warned that the intense heat predicted for the event could cause athletes to faint or – in the worst case scenario – die during competition.
A new report, Rings of Fire: Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics, claims that the 2021 Tokyo Games “have become a window into an alarming, growing norm for the Summer Olympics.”
With temperatures above 34°C and humidity approaching 70 per cent, the Games have been labelled “the hottest in history.” The report said:
“Competitors vomited and fainted at finish lines, wheelchairs were deployed to carry athletes away from sun-scorched arenas and the fear of dying on court was even raised mid-match by the Tokyo Games’ No 2 seeded tennis player Daniil Medvedev.”
The researchers also assessed the risk of a two-week heat wave, which they calculated would surpass the record heat wave experienced in Paris in 2003. It would have serious consequences for the environment and human health.
Inaction on climate change and the continued use of fossil fuels has caused the world to warm further in the three years since, and instances where extreme heat is jeopardising and undermining sporting events have only become more frequent.
Paris is suffering from a heatwave
Since Paris last hosted the Olympic Games in 1924, the annual temperature in the French capital has warmed by 1.8 °C, with an average of 23 more “hot” days (25 °C+) and nine more “scorching” days (30 °C+) per year.
Paris has experienced 50 heat waves since 1947, and they are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of the climate crisis. In 2003, in July and August – the same time as the upcoming Olympic Games – record heat waves caused more than 14,000 deaths in France.
The absolute temperature record was set in July 2019, when Météo-France recorded 42.6 degrees Celsius in the capital. As for the organisers of the 2024 Paris Olympics, they said they are “fully aware” of the climate risks for the Games, which are due to start at the end of July 2024. “Heat waves and extreme weather events are factors we are taking into account and are preparing to take the necessary measures as much as possible,” a spokesman for the Games Organising Committee told AFP.
Measures include rescheduling outdoor events to start earlier or later to avoid the midday heat for athletes, the public and security forces who will be spending hours under the blazing sun. Track and field events, especially the marathon, as well as tennis and beach volleyball are considered vulnerable to the scorching sun and high temperatures, due to the fact that they are held outdoors and will not be air-conditioned. Nicolas Ferrand, head of the French agency responsible for building the Olympic venues, assured his country’s Senate that all indoor venues are built with global warming in mind.
