Olympic athletes to pay for AC in their rooms

The 10,500 athletes at next year’s Olympics will feel first-hand the deep budget cuts buffeting the Rio de Janeiro Games: they won’t have air conditioning in their bedrooms unless someone pays for it.

Charging for air conditioning is part of what games organizers call finding “fat” and cutting it.

Mario Andrada, spokesman for the Rio Games, says organizers have found up to $520 million US that needed to be cut as part of balancing the operating budget of $1.9 billion.

Asked specifically about the need for AC in the bedrooms, Andrada replied: “We don’t think it’s going to be critical (to have air conditioning) there.”

Though the Games take place in the South American winter — Aug. 5-21 — it could still be hot. This year on Aug. 19 the temperature soared to 35.4 C.

Andrada said national federations might pay for some athletes, though it’s unclear if poorer federations could handle the added costs. Rio organizers are being hit by a deep recession, a steep fall in the value of the local currency against the U.S. dollar, and 10-per-cent inflation. There is also a spreading corruption scandal involving staterun oil giant Petrobras that has been part of triggering impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. This wasn’t the mood in 2009 when Rio won the bid, setting off wild celebrations on Copacabana beach.

“We are discussing with our partners, especially the IOC, what kind of levels of service we can reduce,” Andrada said.

Rio officials say most of the cuts involve “behindthe-scenes” facilities, unseen on television or by ticket-paying customers. This could involve organizers buying cheaper products and services, reducing signage, or using more temporary structures.