The 2024 Olympic Games opened on the same week Earth recorded its hottest day ever.
A different kind of record-breaking will be animating competitors in Paris, but the climate crisis is making it hard for organisers to keep the tournament on track. A deluge that dumped a month’s worth of rain on the opening ceremony and its aftermath strained the city’s 200-year old combined sewer system. The resulting discharge of untreated sewage delayed the triathlon event, which includes a swimming race in the river Seine.
