With some rare exceptions, such as those who tried to sabotage French high-speed rail services last week, few would wish failure on the 33rd Olympiad. The organisers of the Paris Olympics, like their predecessors, aim to host a crowd-pleasing athletic spectacle and run a secure, globally unifying event, even at a time of French national disunity.

But success for these Games has an added dimension: addressing climate challenges. Attention this week has focused on early medals, but also on the state of the Seine, whose water quality fell sharply after heavy rain, forcing postponement of the men’s triathlon. Amid rising global temperatures and in the city where the 2015 climate agreement was forged, the organisers have set a goal of emitting less greenhouse gas, serving more plant-based food, using less single-use plastic and deploying more temporary venues. Faster, higher, stronger, yes, but also leaner, greener — and hotter.

Tension between environmental and Olympic objectives is not new, as Madeleine Orr explains in Warming Up, her new book about how climate change is changing sport. The committee behind the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Games had to backtrack on a plan to fell 2,500 trees in the Adirondack Forest Preserve to create a bobsleigh run after protests and lawsuits.