Ariarne Titmus, who just won an Olympic gold medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Swimming and an Olympic silver medal in the Women’s 200m Freestyle Swimming, slammed the “ridiculous” conditions inside the Olympic Village in Paris, France.
Australia’s queen of the pool is among a host of current athletes who have weighed in on the eco-friendly accommodation arrangements, which include polythene mattresses and beds made from cardboard, The Daily Mail reported on Monday (July 29).
Ariarne candidly opened up about her disappointment over not breaking her world record in the 400m Freestyle on Saturday (July 27) despite smashing the Olympic record.
She reportedly said in an interview on Sunday (July 28): “It probably wasn’t the time I thought I was capable of, but living in the Olympic Village makes it hard to perform.
“It’s definitely not made for high performance, so it’s about who can really keep it together in the mind.”
Ariarne Titmus slammed the “ridiculous” conditions inside the Olympic Village in Paris, France
The 23-year-old’s comments reportedly sparked an angry response from Australian swimming head coach Rohan Taylor.
He has since reminded the swimmers that they should not let anything distract them from their performance, including conditions in the Olympic Village, The Mail reported.
The coach said: “The Olympics has always been a challenge. Every Olympics I’ve been a part of, every Olympic Games that you see, is a test of athletes’ ability to come here, compete and perform when it matters.
“It’s about how you manage yourself and whatever environments are presented, whatever the beds are, whatever the food is, everybody deals with it.
“The Olympics has always been this way and that’s the way it is. And that’s the beauty of it.”
Rohan reportedly added the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) had gone the extra mile for the athletes, whether it’s arranging private transport, providing a barista to make coffee, organizing extra food, and ensuring air conditioning.
“It’s just been dealt with,” he said. “The first few days, transport is always a challenge. The food, there’s many options. The AOC has got a pantry for food, but they have options right there, you’ve got multiple different sites to go and eat.”
The Aussie trainer continued: “The biggest thing for them is to swim down, get some massage and some food, and get back in their beds as quickly as possible.”
Retired Olympic swimmer James Magnussen took a dig at the Olympics, writing in an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph on Monday that the Olympic Games were about “trying to get the perfect performance in the most imperfect environment.”
Ariarne won an Olympic gold medal in the 400m Freestyle Swimming and a silver medal in the 200m Freestyle Swimming
Image credits: ariarnetitmus_
The fellow Aussie swimmer, who won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016, wrote: “We’ve already heard the likes of Ariarne Titmus talk about how difficult life is in the village, so we can’t dismiss those complaints as an athlete whining because they didn’t win gold.”
James, who also secured the title of 100m Freestyle World Champion in 2011 and 2013 before retiring from competitive swimming in 2019, noted that the Olympic Village’s cardboard beds, lack of air conditioning, crowded buses, and constant walking made “village life far from ideal.”
“You add those extenuating circumstances of village life on top of that layer of pressure and expectation in a nation like Australia, it’s actually amazing that athletes can manage to perform at their best or break world records at an Olympic Games,” James wrote.
The 33-year-old argued: “From our sample size thus far, this Olympics is showing that it may be one of the toughest environments we’ve seen to produce world record swims.”
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games famously launched with a rain-soaked opening ceremony that drenched athletes and spectators alike.
Nevertheless, athletes are currently enduring the opposite experience since most of France has been under heat warnings, with temperatures in Paris hitting 36 degrees Celsius (97 Fahrenheit).
“The lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance,” James wrote.
He further revealed: “They had a charter that said 60 percent of food in the village had to be vegan friendly and the day before the opening ceremony they ran out of meat and dairy options in the village because they hadn’t anticipated so many athletes would be choosing the meat and dairy options over the vegan-friendly ones.”
The Olympic Village’s eco-friendly accommodations include polythene mattresses and beds made from cardboard
James shared: “The caterer had to rejig their numbers and bring in more of those products because surprise, surprise — world-class athletes don’t have vegan diets.
“They must have watched the Netflix doco Game Changers and assumed everyone was the same.
“But let me tell you, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer — none of those guys are on a vegan diet.
“It seemed Paris wanted to be eco first, performance second at the Games.
“I don’t know if that’s a political stance, or if it’s a cost stance, but I think in the future we need to look to other options because the Olympics is the pinnacle sporting event in the world.
“These athletes train their entire career to perform at their best on this stage, and to try and do so from cardboard beds is just suboptimal.”
The swimming star concluded: “For athletes like Ariarne to come out and win gold medals under those circumstances, it makes them even greater.”
Ariarne said the Olympic Village was “definitely not made for high performance”
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“I think in the future, at Brisbane 2032, they should look at whether a village is an ideal environment to host an Olympic Games from a real estate perspective, a geographical perspective, a cost perspective, and a facility-wise perspective.
“Sometime in the future a host nation or an [International Olympic Committee] will look at hotels as a feasible alternative to an Olympic Village, particularly if results don’t improve at these Games.”
Olympic organizers have since addressed Ariarne’s complaints about the conditions of this year’s Olympic Village, telling Unilad in a statement on Tuesday (July 30): “On the conditions pointed out by some athletes, Paris 2024 is in constant liaison with the National Olympic Committees and stands ready to help with any further changes needed to catering or transportation services. It is our priority to meet the performance needs of athletes from around the world.
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“That’s why we have worked with our suppliers to adapt our food service to the athletes’ needs.
“These changes have significantly improved the quality of the service. For example, the quantity of grilled meats on offer is now 900 grams per athlete, per day.”
The statement continued: “On transportation, significant progress has also been made, with 100% of services provided and a punctuality rate of over 90 percent.
“In addition, all the competition sessions were able to start on time. Today, the transport of accredited persons for Paris 2024 represents more than 1,300 buses, the equivalent of the city of Lyon bus network.
“The quality of Airweave mattresses is recognized and approved by National Olympic and Paralympic Committees,” officials said
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“Finally, on the beds, a key benefit of Airweave mattresses is that they are customizable to an individual’s morphology and so can meet specific comfort and preparation needs.
“The quality of Airweave mattresses is recognized and approved by National Olympic and Paralympic Committees and already proved its comfort to athletes during the Tokyo Games.”
The Olympic Village spans parts of three cities: Saint-Denis, Saint Ouen, and L’Île-Saint-Denis in France.
According to the Olympics’ official website, the village accommodates 14,250 athletes during the Olympic Games and will accommodate 8,000 during the Paralympic Games, which kick off on August 28.
Up to 60,000 meals are served each day, and a medical clinic is available at all times for the athletes.
After the Games, the Village will become a neighborhood with 2,500 new homes, a student residence, a hotel, a three-hectare landscaped park, about seven hectares of gardens and parks, 120,000 square meters of offices and city services, and a 3,200 square meters of neighborhood shops.
The Village met Paris 2024 and SOLIDEO’s requirements, which is the public sector organization tasked with financing, supervising, and delivering the Olympic facilities, regarding environmental goals.
As a result, the Village will reportedly help to protect and foster biodiversity, with rooftops built to house insects and birds, as well as featuring enclosures with openings for small animals to pass through.
“She is not wrong about the poor conditions at the Olympics,” a reader commented
