Topline
The Paris Summer Olympics are less than a month away, and as athletes across the globe prepare to compete on the world stage, some issues have already begun affecting the Games, including a muddy French political landscape and complaints about flimsy cardboard beds.
The Olympic rings in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Key Facts
Political turmoil: It’s unclear who will hold top government positions when the Games commence, after France was left with a hung parliament when the French left-wing New Popular Front party won the most seats in the National Assembly during Sunday’s election but didn’t win an outright majority, leading to violent protests and clashes with the police.
River Seine Contamination: Officials said some Paris Olympics swimming events like triathlons and marathons may be postponed, canceled or moved to a different area of Paris due to high levels of E. coli found in the River Seine, though the city has already invested $1.5 billion into cleaning up the river.
River Seine “Poop Protest”: A viral “poop protest” that first started as an internet joke was planned to protest the contamination of the Seine and scheduled on June 23, the same day President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo were set to swim in the river to prove it was safe, though their dip was delayed due to the elections, so it’s unclear if the protest still happened.
No AC in the Olympic Village: In order to reduce the city’s carbon footprint, Paris Olympics officials said the athletes’ living quarters will have no air conditioning units, but countries including the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Canada, Greece and Denmark plan on bringing their own units for athletes due to worries about potential heat waves affecting the athletes’ performances.
“Anti-sex” bed rumors: The Olympic Village will feature small twin beds made with cardboard frames and recycled fishing net mattresses, a move some news outlets and ex-athletes claimed was an “anti-sex” feature made to collapse under the weight of more than one person—but organizers denied this claim, saying the material was used to reduce the Games’ environmental impact by making the bed frames recyclable.
How Can You Watch The Olympics?
NBC is the main U.S. broadcaster for the Games, so it will offer at least nine hours of live daily coverage of the events. NBC’s sister stations CNBC, Telemundo, USA and NBCSN will also broadcast some of the events. Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, will offer a live broadcast of all events. Live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on July 26 will begin at 12 p.m. EDT on NBC and Peacock and a Spanish broadcast on Telemundo will begin at 1 p.m. EDT.
How Many Athletes Will Compete In The Olympics?
Around 10,500 athletes from 206 countries will participate in 45 different sports across 329 medal events. This is the second most Olympic events following the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, which had 339 events.
Surprising Fact
This isn’t the first time Olympic organizers have faced grief for using cardboard bed frames. The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics used cardboard, leading to similar claims that the beds were meant to deter sex, a rumor fueled partly by the Olympics’ COVID-era “anti-intimacy” rules that were in place at the time. The beds were announced in January 2020 before the pandemic began, and officials said they were designed to be broken down and recycled after the games ended.
Why Is The Olympic Village Eco-Friendly?
Sustainability is one of three pillars of Olympic Agenda 2020, which is a set of recommendations outlining the future of the Olympics. The sustainability plan encourages host cities to implement more eco-friendly strategies, reduce travel impact and carbon emissions and include sustainability in their day-to-day operations. Paris Olympics officials have said the Olympic Village is an eco-friendly project designed to be transformed into a neighborhood that locals can use after the Olympics are over. Located in three different cities, officials estimate the village will be converted into houses and offices suitable for 6,000 residents and 6,000 workers by 2025. Organizers said they’d cut greenhouse gas emissions from the previous Summer Games by half in order to align with the Paris Agreement’s goal to cut local carbon emissions by 100% by 2050.
Tangent
Olympian Simone Biles seemingly called out her former teammate MyKayla Skinner after Skinner criticized the 2024 U.S. gymnastics team in a since-deleted YouTube video. In the video from last month, Skinner said "besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn't like what it used to be." Though she didn’t mention her by name, Biles said in a post on Threads last week “not everyone needs a mic and a platform.” Other gymnasts on the team include Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera.
Tangent
River Seine Pollution Could Cancel Paris Olympics Events—Here’s Why (Forbes)
