Paris in the summer when it sizzles

To those of us who followed the news 21 years ago, the French heat wave was an eye-opener: [bold added]

It was an unprecedented heatwave, which saw hospital services overwhelmed, fatalities rapidly counted by the dozens – if not hundreds – in hospitals and retirement homes, a health minister procrastinating at his holiday resort, and a government was slow to act....from August 2 to 17, 2003, France experienced its most prolonged and intense heatwave in the hottest summer since 1950. It was also the most deadly, claiming the lives of 15,000 people in a fortnight.

Trocadero Fountains, 2019 (CBS News)

After 2003 heat waves have been taken very seriously, and safety protocols (cooling centers, wellness checks) have been implemented.

Headline: Paris Wanted a Green Olympics. Team USA Wants Air Conditioning.

The organizers of the Summer Games, in their efforts to be friendlier to the environment, chose not to install air conditioning.

For much of the world, a few fitful nights of sweating in front of open windows is simply a reality of summer. But some Olympians are more reliant on climate control than others—namely the members of Team USA.

They are now discovering what generations of American tourists have encountered on their European vacations: When you ask for A/C in France, you’re more likely to receive a giant Gallic shrug.

Although athletes' quarters have been engineered to be cooler than non-A/C rooms (cold water circulates beneath the floors), portable air conditioners are available at extra cost.

But for those athletes who remain unconvinced and worry about their performance being derailed by sleeping in sweatbox apartments, Paris 2024 has made air conditioning units available for hire. And there are no gold medals for guessing which delegation leads the way.

The 592-strong Team USA delegation isn’t risking the slightest discomfort. Every single U.S. room and some common areas have been equipped with portable A/C units, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. The Americans will all be able to take on any Paris heat wave by hanging out in meat-locker conditions, even though temperatures over the next 10 days aren’t expected to top 90.

I don't blame the athletes for removing all possible impediments to their performance. Unlike the one-percenters who always use private planes, the U.S. Olympians at least have a good reason for setting aside the global-warming principles the elite espouse for the rest of us.