Posted on 03/14/2024 5:25:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Olympic athletes are going to be on the hot seat this summer in Paris.
Not just metaphorically; the Paris Olympic Committee wants this Olympics to be the greenest ever (take that, Classical Greeks!), and one of the measures they have taken is to build the Olympic village without any air conditioning.
There will be no air conditioning in athletes' rooms at #Paris2024, which pledged to host the ‘greenest ever’ Olympic Games. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo spoke to @Reuters about the city's plans to keep athletes cool https://t.co/Js9skXtWoF pic.twitter.com/uVBMusztdi— Reuters (@Reuters) March 14, 2024
I think this is one virtue signal that will see plenty of athletes breathing fire and with smoke coming out of their ears.
The French are very proud of the fact that all these athletes and visitors who flew on private and chartered jets are going to emit fewer pounds of CO2 once they arrive in Paris; sure, their commitment to climate virtue signaling didn't prevent them from emitting tons of CO2 in preparation for the event, but then again nobody was watching them closely then.
Not everybody is thrilled with the decision, perhaps because athletes suffering from heat exhaustion might not perform optimally, or even for the simple reason that going to bed sweating kinda sucks eggs.
"Our clear wish is that there should be air-conditioning in all rooms," the Norwegian Committee told Reuters, with Brazil saying "the heat forecast" made it "necessary to invest in renting air-conditioning units for the entire delegation".
Australia's Chef de Mission Anna Meares said they were "looking at portable air conditioners to offer the athletes should they choose to if it gets hot, if it's uncomfortable".
The Canadian Olympic Committee told Reuters it had "implemented a number of heat mitigation strategies in Paris to complement the measures put in place by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, including air conditioning units in some athlete rooms in case of extreme heat".
What matters for Hidalgo, however, is that the athletes' village, which will be home to some 6,000 Parisiens after the Games, is a sustainable project.
This is, of course, totally absurd. There is nothing "sustainable" about an Olympics, and nobody should pretend otherwise. The last "sustainable" Olympics was in 393 A.D., when the ancient Olympics were shut down because Pope Theodocius I decreed them a pagan ritual and they were banned.
Jerk.
For over a thousand years, the Olympics were "sustainable" and "green," but the modern Olympics are massive displays of excess and international political competition. France's contribution to the competitive spirit appears to be arrogance and virtue signaling, and they have proven to excel in that arena.
Perhaps, though, this is a bid to bring back the tradition of competing in the nude, this time not to display the ideal human physique at work but to hasten the cooling process that sweating profusely provides to the human body.
On a more serious note, I generally approve of the idea of finding innovative solutions to reduce inefficiencies in any system and maximizing natural cooling is as legitimate a way to do so as anything else. But the point should be to make things better for human beings, not to make sacrifices to the god Gaia.
Perhaps this proves Theodocius I right; the Olympics have once again become a pagan ritual.
It’s for the children and the planet and fake libtard climate change it shouldn’t be a problem for any of them to suck it up
And this is why I never ever go back home unless it’s freezing.
Americans are such weaklings. My family, and other families here on the West Coast never had AC in our homes, and still don't. It gets hot, we open windows. When traveling elsewhere, if the hotel has AC we turn it off. People we know that use AC are always getting sick.
The French have always been like this. Napoleon insisted on Josephine not washing her sweaty nether regions after a days work so he could feast on the whiff of delights.
All the overweight black women would pass out.
why do you think the French wear so much perfume?
LOL...so they are recreating Napoleon and Josephine for the randy young athletes?
Yes, they are delighted by the odorous possibilities.
Paris can get as hot and humid as Calcutta in the summer. Paris ain’t the West Coast of the US.
true there was no ac in those days...but the competing athletes were also naked so there is that.
Exactly.
They’ll smell like the French after a week. Confiscate the deodorant at the customs check.
“For over a thousand years, the Olympics were “sustainable” and “green,” but the modern Olympics are massive displays of excess and international political competition.”
National Socialist German Workers Party NSDAP brought the lions share of the pageantry to the games in 1936. And it stuck.
It is not comfortable in Paris without AC in the summer time. Good luck
yup...
My family and I spent ten days in Paris in July just before I turned 14.
Our hotel was lovely and it had no A/C, but I don’t remember being uncomfortable.
I hope they have several trailer-truck loads of Right Guard, it is going to get stinky.
Lots of Parisians also have no refrigerator in their home. Or if they do, it’s only a small one. Because they only buy perishables from the grocer on the way home from work the day they intend to prepare them. But that’s the way their culture is set up, and their grocery store infrastructure. They’re a nation of “foodies.”
The Tour de France historically starts on the first weekend in July, so I too have been to in Paris in July. Several times. Most of the time the weather wasn’t unpleasant, but not always. One year I cheaped out and picked a hotel in Paris with no aircon because its rates were less insane than the rest.
The problem with no aircon is it makes sleeping with the windows open mandatory. The problem with sleeping with the windows open ... is noise. And sometimes odors.
World-class athletes performing on the largest stage of their lives need to be able to get their rest, which usually happens right after the orgies wind down. It would be a pity to louse up their chances because they couldn’t sleep for the noise. Or the heat. And leaving windows open also poses a security risk, especially since window screens aren’t mandatory in Parisian homes either.
It’s a bad idea all around but whoever let it get this far without making certain the athletes had accommodations that met a certain standard is an idiot.
I think all of Europe is further north (and cooler) than most Americans imagine. The southernmost point in continental Europe is at about the same latitude as Ok City. Galveston is about 670 miles south of that.
Paris is on the 48th Parallel. The majority of the US-Canada border is on the 49th Parallel, so Paris is about 70 miles south of that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.