According to an article in USA Today titled Rio Olympic organizers change mind, will provide free air conditioning, athletes who were reported to have to pay for their own air conditioning at the Olympics will no longer have to do so. The decision caused quite a controversy. Let’s take a look.

The Olympic organizers announced Friday that they’d changed their minds, and once again the athletes would have free air conditioning in their bedrooms located in the athletes’ village. This announcement comes on the tails of the Associated Press reporting that the 10,000 Olympic athletes would be forced to pay for their own air condition, due to budget cuts.

Mario Andrada, the spokesman for the games, said that their sports department figured out a solution that allows them to buy air conditioning for both the bedrooms of the athletes and their social rooms.

The organizers are forced to make many cuts to balance their operation budget of around $1.9 billion. They’re trying to cut at least $520 million from that - which is almost a third of their total operating budget.

Andrada said the change in air conditioning wasn’t a change at all, but was an evolution. This decision, whether you want to call it a change or an evolution, is welcome – and surprised many. Kitty Chiller, the chief of the Australian team, said that she wasn’t expecting to have air conditioning. She says that organizers told her and her team that there would be a fan in every bedroom and the social room in each apartment.

She didn’t think that extreme heat would be a particular problem in South America, as it will be their winter. She didn’t expect that any athletes would have to deal with heat stress. However, others have noted that though the August games will be happening during Rio’s winter, the temperatures can still get as high as 96 degrees.

The cuts are a result of a deep economic recession in their country. Their currency has collapsed and inflation is over 10 percent. There’s also a growing scandal that involves state-run oil company Petrobras, which is triggering impeachment proceedings against their president. The games were supposed to have 5,000 employees but they’re scaling that back by 10 percent to 4,500.

At AC-World we’re glad they made the change. We know that heat can be a serious issue for athletes, especially those from areas of the world that don’t experience extreme heat. If you want to keep your own home cool and comfortable, let us find you the best ductless air conditioning solution for your needs!