People were horrified to learn that the Olympic athletes are living in substandard conditions in Paris . The biggest outrage was perhaps the lack of air conditioning, as temperatures in the French city are set to reach new heights this week .
Temperatures in Paris have remained high since the opening ceremony on July 26 . This week will bring temperatures in the high 80s - comparable to low 30s in celsius. After gold medal-winning swimmer Thomas Ceccon was spotted sleeping in a local park, he opened up about the poor facilities in the apartments - where it's claimed organizers built anti-sex beds - purpose-built to house the athletes during the Games.
"There is no air conditioning in the village , it's hot, the food is bad," Ceccon said. "Many athletes move for this reason: it's not an alibi or excuse, it's the reality of what perhaps not everyone knows. I'm disappointed that I didn't make the final but I was too tired. It's hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon. Usually, when I'm at home, I always sleep in the afternoon. Here I really struggle between the heat and the noise."
Instead of air conditioning, the Olympic apartments have a water-based system within the walls which can cool the room by up to 10 celsius . The system was part of Paris' attempt to lead with sustainability. However, athletes have complained that they can only reduce the temperature by about 2 degrees.
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Romanian table tennis player Bernadette Szocs also spoke about the heat, telling the Guardian: "There is no air conditioning, just this fan and it is not enough. Somehow we were lucky that it was not so hot outside so we didn't need it so much but it is now hot and you can feel it is too hot in the room.
"[The fan] is not powerful enough and when it is pointing at you it is good but after it is turning you don't feel it. We are sleeping with the door open in the night. The rooms are small and we are two persons."
Social media blew up with shocked users expressing how shameful it is that the top athletes in the world are living in conditions that are affecting their performance.
@philpjg wrote: “France couldn't even provide for the basic needs of athletes. Probably the worst organized Olympics. ”
@onlyonenetra responded: “They had this liberal thing in mind to make these games energy efficient, reduce carbon footprints and all such things, not thinking climatic conditions and that these players would badly need ACs.”
@cdeka678 also wrote: “No air conditioner in Olympic games village this time despite 35 degree Celsius maximum temperature? Really horrible. Compared to Tokyo Olympic this Paris Olympic look absolutely disappointing, disaster.”
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