Olympian and five-time Commonwealth Games medalist and New Zealand Olympic team Chef de Mission Nigel Avery. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Air conditioning units will be available for New Zealand athletes at the Paris Olympics, but on a limited scale.
In an effort to make Paris 2024 the "greenest ever games", organisers decided not to install air conditioning units in the rooms at the athletes' village.
However temperatures could hit as high as 40C during the games.
The United States say they will be taking air conditioning units with them, while Australia, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece and Italy are also reported to be planning to do the same.
New Zealand team Chef de Mission Nigel Avery said they have organised to do get some units in.
Avery told Nine to Noon they would not be in every room, but there will be one in every apartment.
"It's a transportable air conditioning unit and the communal spaces of all these apartments will have a unit that will keep the athletes cool," he said.
Avery said each athlete will also be given a fan, and they were likely to use those in conjunction with the air conditioning units to achieve some relief.
"There might be a bit of Kiwi ingenuity using those fans to blow that cool air around.
"It's eye-wateringly expensive to hire these units for a short period of time.
"We are competing against nations who will have one per room and we just can't afford that and so we have make best with what we can do and that is one per apartment."
The Trocadero Fountains were opened to bathers following the 2022 heat wave. Photo: AFP
Some parts of Europe have already registered temperatures over 40C.
France has experienced deadly summer heatwaves in the past.
The highest recorded temperature in Paris is 42.6C set at the end of July 2019.
And more recently in 2022, during the Olympic period, a lengthy heatwave saw maximum temperatures reach 36C.
That year, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies in France estimated heat-related deaths of 11,000 throughout the summer.
At the last Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, extreme heat made it "torturous" for athletes and volunteers, according to local meteorologists.
It was the hottest Olympic Games on record with sweltering temperatures of 34C and humidity of 70 percent, which would have made it feel like 47C.
Tennis player Daniel Medvedev spoke of "dying on court" during the heat of a match.
Other competitors vomited and fainted on the finish line because of the high temperatures.
The athletes village will host 15,000 athletes and officials during the Olympics and around 9000 athletes and officials during the Paralympics.
The Olympics run from 26 July to 11 August.
The Paralympics run from 28 August to 8 September.
-RNZ/BBC
