The 2024 Paris Olympics highlight the growing threat of climate change to athletics: to the athletes, their coaches, spectators, parents and to sports schedules as we know them.
“It’s extremely noticeable how much hotter it’s gotten and how much more difficult that makes training,” Samuel Mattis, a discus thrower on Team USA’s track and field team, said of his 15 years in the sport.
But, "it’s not just Olympians who are playing in extraordinary conditions,” says Madeleine Orr, an associate professor in sport ecology at the University of Toronto in Ontario and author of “Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport." “It’s every person playing sports in every part of the world.”
Climate Central, Inc. found these changes in temperature over a century in Paris:
Average temps for 7/26 - 8/11 - Up 5.5 degrees
Days of 86 degrees or higher -
2014-2023 - 188
1924-1933 - 69
Overnight temps at 68 degrees
2014-2023 - 84
1924-1933 - 4
Jamie Farndale, captain of Scotland's rugby sevens team said any temperature above 86 degrees becomes "pretty dangerous" for athletes.
The forecasts from AccuWeather for this week call for 3 days above 86 in Paris, every day but one in St. Etienne, where they're playing soccer and several days above 86 in Nice, another venue for the games.
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