Athletes share their thoughts on 'underwhelming' food in Olympic Village after concerns over living conditions
Topics: Olympics, Reviews, Sport, Food and Drink
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@giveme1shot/@henrikchristians1
Topics: Olympics, Reviews, Sport, Food and Drink
Paris 2024 athletes have shared their thoughts on the food offerings at Olympic Village amid concerns over conditions at the site.
When they're not competing, the Olympic Village is where the athletes who managed to secure a place in this year's Games can hang out, sleep, shop and eat.
The Village spans Saint-Denis, Saint Ouen and L'Île-Saint-Denis and is designed to accommodate 14,250 athletes during the Olympics, with up to 60,000 meals served each day.
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France committed to an environmentally-friendly and low-carbon approach to the Games, but in doing so sparked concern and controversy about its food offerings, cardboard beds and lack of air conditioning.
One Olympic athlete even went as far as claiming the conditions in the neighborhood cost her a world record in Paris.
But while I'm sure you might be familiar with one athlete who's very happy with at least one menu item at Olympic Village - yes, I'm talking about Henrik Christiansen and his chocolate muffins - other reviews have been less enthusiastic.
One video shared by US athlete Rachel Glenn showed her eating what appeared to be pasta at the Olympic Village with a song titled 'Help Me' playing over the top, while fellow Olympian Raven Saunders used a TikTok sound saying 'you disappointed me' while holding up food to the camera.
In the caption, she wrote: "It's been a struggle."
After winning a gold medal for the US last week, gymnast Simone Biles gave the food at Olympic Village a thumbs down and said it wasn't 'proper French cuisine'.
Her teammate, Hezly Rivera, added: "I don’t think it’s very good, at least what we’re having in the dining hall."
It's not all bad, though, as American gymnast Asher Hong described the food as
'not terrible'.
He commended the fruit and the cheeseburgers, according to USA Today, but he added: "It’s just not what you would expect at the Olympic Games. You'd think that they'd bring some better chefs to kind of season the food a little bit better."
In a video on TikTok, Singaporean swimmer Jing Quah shared what she ate in a day at the village with few complains, with a breakfast consisting of eggs, cheese and bread, a lunch of beef, cod and rice, and a dinner of fish, chicken, sweet potatoes and carrots.
Then, of course, there's Christiansen's reviews of the chocolate muffins, which he's described as '11/10'.
Anna Hall, a track and field sprinter for the US, also described the food as 'decent'.
She added: "I'm a very picky eater, as I think a lot of the American team is. So I don't think it's our favorite. But we have a training site that the Americans go to, and they have different meals for us there, so it hasn't been hard to find food."
Following initial concerns about the food, Sodexo Live, the company in charge of catering, said it was taking feedback 'very seriously'.