By Giusy Cisale on SwimSwam
On Wednesday evening, after missing the men’s 200m back final, the 100m back Olympic champion, Italian Thomas Ceccon explained that after five days, tiredness is taking its toll due to the conditions of the athlete accommodations in the Olympic Village in Paris.
In the past few days we reporting the remarks of athletes from all sports and around the world about the 2024 Olympic village in Paris.
From the very first hours and even before the Olympics were officially opened, the Organizing Committee had received a lot of criticism for the management of the event and for not making the 10,000 athletes from all over the World comfortable.
In the first hours of the Olympic Village’s opening, the restaurant faced a food emergency. After trying to deal with the food shortage, some teams proceeded to send their chefs to Paris to meet the needs of their athletes.
In addition to food, the quality of sleep also left something to be desired. There were those who had beds and mattresses flown in from their own countries, while others bought them online and had them delivered directly to the Village.
South Korean swimmers also left the Village before competition in the pool even got underway on Friday 27th July and a few days later, other athletes decided to leave the Village and stay in hotels or even mountain chateaus.
ROOMS WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONERS
Thomas Ceccon said to Italian TV broadcaster Rai:
In the Village there is no air conditioning, it’s hot, the food is bad. Many athletes move because of this … it is not an alibi it is the pure chronicle of what perhaps not everyone knows
I emphasize that this is not meant to be an excuse or an alibi, we are all experiencing the same situations and are in the same conditions. It is one thing many people probably do not know and it is right to tell the story.
Maybe I did not go into the water with the same conviction that I had in the 100m, and that was my mistake, it will serve me well in the future. I’m disappointed that I didn’t make a finals time, but I was tired too.
I gave up in the semi-final … a little tired you have a hard time sleeping both at night and in the afternoon, between noise and heat.
Yes it’s hot for me too, in the Village there is no air conditioning, we don’t eat well and there are problems with the food. Many athletes move for these reasons
Last summer, organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris revealed that air conditioning would not be installed in the Athletes’ Village to limit the Games’ carbon footprint.
At the time, Laurent Michaud, director of Paris 2024, said traditional air conditioning would not be necessary because “thanks to the insulation of the buildings we can contain the coolness of the night until the next day and this helps to maintain an acceptable indoor temperature.” (Reuters)
However, the Australian Olympic Committee was among the NOCs that invested more than $100,000 worth of portable air conditioners in athletes’ rooms. That has proven a salient move – while cooler temperatures are coming, it reached as high as 96 degrees during the day in the early part of the Games, though it still cools off at night.
THE FOOD.
The issue of poor and low-quality food was also raised in the early hours of the Village’s opening. On July 26, the day of the opening ceremony, we reported how entire teams had brought in their own chefs to make up for the lack and poor quality of food.
Andy Anson, chief executive officer of the British Olympic Association, said “ food in France is proving to be a major problem. There are not enough foods: eggs, chicken, some carbohydrates. And then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to the athletes“.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Olympic 100 Back Champion Thomas Ceccon Cites Poor Living Conditions In Olympic Village