The situations in the Olympic Village left some athletes uninspired: the sport’s biggest stars packed their own mattresses, hired personal chefs and even slept outdoors.
The village was a must-see venue for the 1924 Games, when Paris built several cabins for competitors. Today, a century later, it is much bigger and better. The Villa of 2024, which will cost around £1. 7 billion, is the length of 70 football fields and sustainability is at the heart of its project.
Once the Paralympics are over, it will be remodelled to accommodate 6,000 people and will house another 6,000 people. Georgina Grenon, director of sustainability for the Olympics, said the complex “will have life after. “
But while their cardboard beds and bathroom cooling systems are smart for the planet, they weren’t won over by all the candidates. Here, the Mirror looks inside the town as gold medal-winning swimmer Thomas Ceccon is seen sleeping in a local park. .
Ceccon, who won gold in the men’s 100m backstroke and bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle, spoke cheekily about the situation he is in after failing to qualify for the final of the men’s 200m backstroke. “No. ” There is air conditioning in the town, it is hot, the food is bad,” Ceccon complained.
“Many athletes move for this reason: it’s not an alibi or an excuse, it’s the truth of what maybe not everyone knows. I’m disappointed I didn’t make it to the final, but I was too tired. It is difficult to sleep. in combination nuit. et in the afternoon. Normally, when I’m at home, I sleep in the afternoon. Here, in fact, I struggle between heat and noise.
Over the weekend, Saudi rower Hussein Alireza shared a clip of the Italian taking a nap in a park with the caption: “Rest today, tomorrow. “Ceccon is one of many athletes who have voiced their court cases over the situation there, with Australian swimmer Ariane Titmus criticising the people.
“It probably wasn’t the time I thought I was capable, but living in the Olympic Village makes it hard to perform,” Titmus said after winning the women’s 400m freestyle. “It’s definitely not made to achieve peak performance, so it’s about who can keep the mindset on track. “
Meanwhile, Romanian tennis player Bernadette Szocs told The Guardian: “There’s no air conditioning, just this fan and it’s not enough. Somehow, we were lucky that it’s not that hot outside, so we don’t want it that much. However, it’s hot now, and you may feel like it’s too hot in the room.
“[The fan] is quite sturdy and when it’s pointed at you it’s fine, but once it spins you don’t feel it. We sleep with the door open at night. The rooms are small and there are two of us. “
Instead of air conditioning, each apartment has a water-based formula on the walls that can cool the room by up to 10°C; However, athletes have complained that they can only lower the temperature by up to 2°C. Some rooms also have no curtains, with American heptathlete Chari Hawkins using a giant towel to block the windows while she changes.
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Competitors sleep on simple cardboard beds, and while some find them comfortable, others send them away with their own bedspreads. But they are said to be tough, and British gold medalist diver Tom Daley tested the design by jumping onto the bed without any sign of damage.
A spokesperson for manufacturer Airweave said: “We have carried out experiments, such as dropping weights on beds. As long as they attach themselves to only two other people in bed, they deserve to be strong enough to bear the load. “However, they did not please American gymnast Simone Biles, who posted on TikTok: “The bed sucks. But we’re getting bedspreads, so I hope it gets better. “
It turns out that small-town life really is for everyone, as NBA stars have for years discovered their own places to live after raising considerations about safety and comfort. American basketball star Kevin Duran said: “I don’t think we had a choice. I haven’t been on a cardboard bed since I did all this. “
British jumper Yasmin Harper, a bronze medallist, praised the sleeping situations, telling The Athletic: “I literally like the bed. I enjoy a hard bed, so it’s wonderful for me, and the village is literally nice. “But I wasn’t as pleased with the food being served in the 3500-seat main dining room, which serves about 40,000 meals a day.
Harper continued, “The food has been a little more questionable — it’s been a little lacking in quantity. I feel like with food you want texture or flavor, and if you don’t, it’s a little bit more problematic. “
British diver Tom Daley also expressed his concern, saying: “The village itself is quite impressive. The only corridor is that the food corridor is very crowded, but I hope they realize that, because as the games go on, it will get busier and busier. . . and busier. “
Laurent Michaud, director of the village, previously told Sky News: “We will have more than 350 meters of buffet with food from all over the world. . . and I am sure that the athletes will be very satisfied to see the French specialties prepared here. But the variety will first satisfy the desires of athletes in terms of nutrition and performance. ”
Athletes can enjoy French, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and world cuisine, and chocolate muffins have gone viral on TikTok. But so do bad reviews.
Australian tennis player Daria Saville posted on the trending site that the food “sold out very quickly” and that “the meats were the first to go. ” She said that “the food is a little cold” and “lacks seasoning,” and that the plates were “super small,” so it would take more than a dozen to feel full.
Team GB lead executive Andy Anson also said it was inappropriate. He told The Times: “At the beginning of each game there are two or three disorders; the biggest this time is the food in the village, which is not adequate. There is not enough safe food: eggs, chicken, of course. “Carbohydrates , and then there is the quality of the diet, with raw meat served to the athletes. “
Even if athletes don’t sleep well, the cardboard beds aren’t just to blame. The town has a reputation for being crazy about sex and 300,000 condoms are believed to have been distributed this year, according to Sky News, with athletes hanging. Door knob socks as a universal symbol for “walking away”.
Former long jump star Susen Tiedtke has told Bild in the past: “Gender is still a challenge in the village. At the Olympic Games, athletes are at their physical best. Once the festival is over, they need to release their power. ” And Matthew Syed, a former table tennis star, revealed that he had more sex while competing than ever before in his life.
“I am occasionally asked whether the Olympic Village, the sprawling conglomerate of restaurants and housing that houses the world’s most productive athletes during the Games, is the sex party it should be,” he wrote in the Times. My answer is the same: it is too true.
“I played my first Games in Barcelona in 1992 and I fucked more in those two and a half weeks than in the rest of my life up to that point. That is to say twice, which may not seem like much, still for a 21-year-old student with crooked teeth it was a small miracle; for many of us Olympic virgins, Barcelona was as much sex as it was sport.
The Mirror has reached out to the Paris 2024 Olympics for comment.
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