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The 2024 Paris Olympics Organizing Committee, which said it would not install air conditioners in the event of an eco-friendly Olympics, eventually abandoned the principle of an "air-conditioned Olympics" due to a heat wave of more than 40 degrees.

According to AFP on the 2nd (local time), the Paris Organizing Committee has allowed countries to order portable air conditioners at their own cost, and announced that 2,500 units were ordered this week.

Many participating countries were worried that the athletes would not be able to sleep properly in the athletes' village in the hot weather in Paris, and the Paris Organizing Committee, which eventually decided to hold an eco-friendly Olympics by reducing carbon emissions, also bowed out. "Our goal was to provide very specific solutions to athletes facing a lifetime of games or competition," said Augustine Tran Van Chow, deputy director of the Olympic Village. "They may have higher requirements for comfort and recovery than normal summers."

The Paris organizing committee promised to keep the temperature in the athletes' village lower by 6 degrees Celsius than outside by drawing up cold groundwater instead of installing air conditioners. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on a French radio broadcast earlier this year, "The comfort of athletes is important, but I think more about human survival."

However, many athletes in each country did not trust the idea. Matt Carroll, chairman of the Australian Olympic Committee, criticized the move, saying, "We are not going on a picnic." The Korean Olympic Committee has also announced that it will prepare cooling jackets and sheets using special environmentally friendly refrigerants, and other countries have taken actions.

In the end, the organizing committee came up with a compromise that allows teams to order portable air conditioners at their own expense. The U.S., the U.K., Canada, Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark, and Australia are reportedly planning to use portable air conditioners. However, the issue of equity with poor countries, which is burdened with costs while allowing each country to install air conditioners at its own cost, remains.

The Paris Olympics focuses on the eco-friendly Olympic Games by using low-carbon materials and renovating existing stadiums instead of building new ones. Meat products have also been reportedly reduced in the dining menu at the accommodation and stadium.