Matt Carroll, the chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee, said that “we appreciate the concept of not having air conditioning due to the carbon footprint” but added that “this is a high-performance Games, we’re not going for a picnic”.
The Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had appeared to rule out air conditioning as recently as March 2023, saying: “I have a lot of respect for the comfort of athletes, but I think a lot more about the survival of humanity.”
Tony Estanguet, the chief executive of Paris, 2024, said that they had “found a good compromise between offering the right temperature but also reducing our carbon emissions”.
The Paris Games is aiming to reduce its total carbon emissions to half the level of previous editions.
Hockey provided the first British athletes to move into the Olympic Village on Thursday. One of the hockey team described the village environment as “the best ever”, with Team GB pleased to have secured their preferred location on an island in a particularly quiet part of the complex.
