Tokyo 2020 organizers reportedly plan to spray artificial snow over spectator seats at an Olympic canoe test event next week in their latest measure to combat 90-plus-degree temperatures and high humidity come the Games in July.
Machines will make a ton of snow in one day, according to NHK.
“We haven’t decided definitively that we will use this system next year for the Olympics, but we want to test it to see how effective it is,” a Tokyo 2020 spokesperson said, according to Agence France-Presse. “We’re open to trying all potentially useful ideas,”
Some of the heat counter-measures that organizers plan to use in July include electric fans, large-scale misting towers and installing special coating over 85 miles of roads in the city’s center — with reflective material that reduces the surface temperature.
The starting times of several events were pushed back in an attempt to avoid the midday heat. The men’s and women’s marathons were pushed back one hour to 6 a.m. to mitigate the heat, while the men’s 50km race walk will start at 5:30 a.m.
Tokyo’s summer heat forced an August women’s triathlon test event to be shortened because of high temperatures.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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