In between the high-octane gymnastic routines, pool-ripping relays and lightning-speed track races at the 2024 Paris Olympics, it's just as important for the athletes to eat, sleep and enjoy downtime, which they'll do at the Olympic Village.
The village, a pool of dormitories built for thousands of athletes from across the world, is an unrivalled opportunity for team-building and camaraderie. Yet athletes from across the globe - including Team Great Britain - have lamented online at the "subpar" conditions in the newly-built neighbourhood set to accommodate 14,000 athletes over the two-week Games.
With complaints of unseasoned food, cramped conditions and cardboard beds, many of the world's best athletes have checked out of the Village and into hotels in the French capital.
Keep scrolling to see what the likes of Simone Biles, Tom Daley and more Olympians have to say about the Paris Olympic Village…
Food at the 2024 Paris Olympic Village restaurant initially looked positive, but Olympians have complaints
Food in the Olympic Village is going viral on TikTok, and not for the right reasons. Athletes have been documenting their honest reviews of the 3,500-seater main dining hall, which caters to around 40,000 meals a day based on four themes – French, Asian, African-Caribbean and world cuisine.
Athletes - who have all their meals catered for in the dining hall - are also treated to a salad bar with more than 30 options, a meat grill, a cheese section, a boulangerie a hot food buffet, a dessert bar and a selection of fresh fruit.
While it sounds like a foodie haven, Olympians have been left feeling less than satisfied with the food offered in Paris.
Australian tennis player Daria Saville gave a candid review of the Olympic Village dining hall on TikTok, sharing that food "ran out very quickly" and "meat options were the first to go".
She added that "the food is also always slightly cold" and "lacks seasoning" and admitted that some nights she had ended up just having cheese and a baguette - not ideal for a world-class athlete.
There is a Michelin-star chef pop up within the village serving up plates of elevated culinary options but according to Daria, "the plates were super small." She added: "They were spectacular, but you'd need about 14 to feel full."
Tom Daley and Noah Williams won silver at the 2024 Olympics
British diver Tom Daley, who snapped up a silver Olympic medal earlier this week admitted: "The village itself is actually quite great."
He added: "The only thing is the food hall gets busy, but hopefully they’ll figure that out because as the games go on it's just going to get busier and busier."
Athletes often need several thousand calories per day to keep their energy levels sustained throughout training and to ensure peak performance during the most important competition of their lives.
With limited protein options, long lines and food running out at lightning speeds, Team GB athletes have decided to skip the food hall entirely.
Olympian Adam Peaty previously revealed he eats up to 7,500 calories per day during training
"There are not enough of certain foods: eggs, chicken, certain carbohydrates, and then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to athletes," Andy Anson, chief of the British Olympic Association, told The Times on July 25. He added that private chefs have had to be called in as an emergency measure to ensure the Tea, GB athletes are getting enough food.
Cramped conditions and overcrowded dormitories
US tennis player Coco Gauff, who joined basketball star LeBron James as a flag bearer for Team USA at the opening ceremony, commented under a video shared to TikTok that "all the tennis girls moved to a hotel" except her.
The post, which has now had the comments turned off, read "10 girls, two bathrooms," and showed a group of Olympians doing their hair and makeup in cramped quarters.
The cardboard beds
Tom Daley gives tour of his bedroom in the Olympic Village
There is no five-star treatment in the Olympic Village, with athletes forced to sleep on collapsible beds made of cardboard and blow-up mattresses.
Five-time Olympic medallist Tom Daley had fans in stitches when he showed himself bouncing around on the cardboard pop-ups - which have been criticised by athletes as being "rock solid" and less than ideal for performance.
A cardboard bed inside an athletes' room at the Olympic Village in Paris, France.
Despite a rumour that the beds were first introduced at the Tokyo Games in 2021 to prevent athletes from sharing beds during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are actually able to support 440 pounds and were introduced as an eco-friendly initiative, to be recycled at the end of the games.
Olympians have been quick to prove the durability of said cardboard beds, taking to TikTok to show themselves jumping, dancing and shaking the pop-up furniture to dispel rumours of them 'collapsing'.
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