After Rain, Fans Suffer From Scorching Heat In Paris Olympics 2024

After heavy rain drenched last week's opening ceremony, the Paris Olympics on Tuesday wrestled with entirely different conditions as temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius. Just to add to the mix, France's meteorological service put the capital on a major storm alert, warning thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail and lightning were likely in the evening. The forecasted return of some wet weather may come as relief to athletes, spectators and officials who baked in unforgiving weather throughout the day.

A report released last month ahead of the Games and backed by climate scientists and athletes had warned about the dangers posed by extreme high temperatures.

Paris has been struck by a series of record heatwaves in recent years.

At Roland Garros, where Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz were in action in men's doubles, stadium announcers urged tennis fans to take breaks from the searing heat in cooler areas of the grounds.

Britain's Jack Draper called the conditions "brutal".

Players have been issued with refillable bottles but the world number 27 said it was impossible to keep the water cool.

"We were drinking hot water out there," Draper said following his exit to Taylor Fritz of the United States.

"It's not fun in those sort of conditions at all."

Officials at the tennis activated a heat protocol, allowing a 10-minute break between the second and third sets.

The stark contrast with Friday, when it bucketed it down at the opening ceremony and was considerably cooler, was not lost on German hockey player Christopher Ruehr.

Saturday was also wet, disrupting some events, before giving way to increasingly warm weather in recent days.

"It was a big, big step from the past days where it was raining and 20 degrees," said Ruehr,