Athletes competing at this summer’s Paris Olympics could face dangerous heat levels, according to a new report.
Rings of Fire: Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics, published by the British Association for Sustainable Sport and Frontrunners, also warns that continued increases in global temperatures could threaten the Games’ future.
It found average July and August temperatures had increased by 2.4°C and 2.7°C, respectively, over the 100 years since the Olympics was last held in France in 1924, the first Games that an Irish team took part in.
Paris’ summer temperatures have risen between 1924 and 2024.Image: BASIS
Temperatures are forecast to soar again in Europe this summer after setting records in 2023. Heatwaves are causing grave concern across parts of southern Europe and the United States.
“The next Olympics in Paris is now upon us, and notable cases of extreme heat undermining the health and enjoyment of sporting spectacles have only increased in the intervening years [since the Tokyo Olympics],” said the report’s researchers who spoke to both scientists and athletes.
“The fact that the Olympics will take place during high summer means that the threat of a devastating hot spell is a very real one,” the report added.
“We have 214 Member Federations based around the World – more than countries who are members of the United Nations – over 40 of which will have an athlete who wins a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. At least a dozen, probably more, of our member federation countries will be uninhabitable by 2060,” wrote Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, in a foreword to the report.
“While global temperatures continue to rise, climate change should increasingly be viewed as an existential threat to sport.”
“There has never been a greater need for heightened awareness, discussion and research into what is happening on the planet and why. Sport is just one part of that, but we cannot be spectators; we must all play a role.”
The threat will remain for the next Games in LA in 2028 before getting a break moving to the southern hemisphere Winter in 2032 in Australia. Suggestions of India being a front-runner to stage the 2036 Games would be another boost from a climate perspective.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar was held in November and December 2022 to avoid the heat of a Middle Eastern summer. It was thought to be impossible in advance, but reality bites and the tournament was staged successfully and safely.
Download the Report in Full Here
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