Extreme heat making summer Olympics ‘impossible’, athletes warn ahead of Paris

Leading athletes and climate scientists have warned that extreme heat will make it “impossible” to hold the Olympics during the summer months amid fears of dangerous conditions at this year’s Paris Games.

A group of Olympians collaborated with climate scientists and heat physiologists from the University of Portsmouth to assess the threat warming temperatures could pose for athletes.

In a report, published on Tuesday, they warned that intense heat at the Paris Olympics in July-August 2024 could lead to competitors collapsing and in worst-case scenarios dying during the Games.

One of the report’s recommendations includes changing the traditional schedules of competitions so that they take place in cooler months or cooler times of day.

Speaking to reporters ahead of its release, Kaitlyn Trudeau, senior research associate at Climate Central, said: “Without concerted efforts to reduce carbon emissions there’s no doubt that the Earth’s temperatures are on a trajectory that will make it nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, to host summer Olympics.”

Ms Trudeau added that extreme heat combined with humidity means the body struggles to cool down, which can lead to heat-stress on bodies, dizziness, exhaustion and heat stroke.

Samuel Mattis, a discus thrower on the American Olympic team, said hot conditions disrupted the Olympic track and field trials in 2021, which eventually had to take place in the evening even though it was still around 30C.

“I think in a lot of places, in the US and around the world, summertime competitions unless they’re held in the middle of the night are going to become essentially impossible,” he said.

Jamie Farndale, a Team GB rugby sevens player, said that extreme heat “takes a lot away from