Olympic Athletes Face Terrible Living Conditions Inside the Olympic Village

The 2024 Paris Olympics are underway, and concerns have arisen that the athletes’ terrible living conditions in the Olympic Village, including a food shortage, could begin affecting performances.

To be fair, the Olympic Village living quarters are never extravagant. There are frequent complaints about highly cramped quarters and uncomfortable cardboard beds, which were introduced during the Tokyo Olympics as a more eco-friendly bedding option. However, athletes have faced additional challenges in Paris this year.

While Olympic athletes are not required to stay in the Olympic Village, many do so because it’s the most affordable and efficient option. If individual athletes don’t want to stay in the Village despite their team opting to stay there, it’s up to them to find and pay for their own accommodations and food and secure transportation to Olympic events and training. For athletes who feel unsafe navigating a foreign country alone or who can’t or don’t want to pay for their Olympic stay, the Village is the only option.

It should be noted that the Olympics seemingly did provide an exception for one athlete: convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde, helping him secure lodgings outside the Village while other athletes were left on their own.

Overall, this year, Paris dropped the ball big time on the athletes’ living spaces.

What’s going on with the Olympic Village in Paris?

Many Olympic athletes have taken to TikTok to share an inside look at the Olympic Village, and the majority don’t have good things to say. One aspect that shocked viewers the most was reports that the Village is experiencing a food shortage. A few athletes have spoken about the subpar food options at the Olympic Village on TikTok. Raven “Hulk” Saunders posted a video about how eating in the Olympic Village has been “a struggle” while showing some kind of burnt meat skewer the athletes were served.

A woman who works at the Olympics shared two of the meals the Village served; one was a pasta dish with stiff noodles stuck together, while the other was a stale polenta dish with “pink chicken.”

Some members of the Norwegian swim team seem to be living solely off of chocolate muffins.

According to the newspaper L’Équipe, additional athletes have spoken out about the food shortage in the Village. The food caterer, Sodexo Live!, seemingly didn’t anticipate that Olympic athletes would need lots of protein options and began running short on primary foods like eggs, chicken, and other grilled meats. There were also reports that some of the athletes were served raw meat. The catering company released a statement confirming it was increasing the volume of some products, but some athletes have already given up on the food. Team Britain athletes were told not to consume any food in the Village and had a chef flown out to prepare their meals.

The lack of food isn’t the only issue. The Olympic Village isn’t equipped with air conditioning, even though Paris has been experiencing high temperatures, reaching to the high 90s °F. Apparently, the rooms in the Village were supposed to be “self-cooling” to minimize the Games’ carbon footprint. However, with a heatwave running through Paris, the self-cooling isn’t working, and many athletes have been forced to purchase their own air conditioning units to make their rooms livable.

Meanwhile, athletes are living in extremely cramped spaces. The infamous cardboard beds have returned and are paired with unfurnished rooms lacking fridges, TVs, coffee machines, and toilet paper. Tennis player Coco Gauff says that female athletes were packed so tightly together they had ten girls sharing two bathrooms. Despite the expense and inconvenience, many athletes have taken the plunge, leaving the Olympic Village completely and finding hotels to stay in.

Although it’s commendable that Paris tried to focus on green initiatives and sustainability, it really defeats the purpose if the resulting accommodation isn’t actually livable. Some may point out that providing lodging and food for several thousand athletes is daunting. However, Paris was chosen as the host city for the 2024 Summer Olympics in 2017. It’s standard for host countries to have at least seven years advance notice to prepare for the Olympics, raising the question of how Paris still seemed so unprepared for these athletes after years of planning. Many Olympic athletes dedicate their entire lives to preparing for the Olympic Games, making it sad that so little effort is directed back at them, to the point they aren’t even guaranteed livable lodgings and edible food.