Some young Olympians are criticizing accommodations in the Olympic Village on TikTok, raising issues with food, uncomfortable beds, lack of privacy and limited shared spaces.
The world’s greatest athletes have gathered in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, with some choosing to stay in the Olympic Village, a residential complex with on-site training facilities, for the nearly three weeks of competition.
As the third day of the Olympics draws to a close, some athletes, including 20-year-old tennis superstar Coco Gauff, have voiced some of their grievances about their living conditions.
Gauff, who represents the United States, posted a TikTok video on Saturday showing how “10 girls” share “two bathrooms” at the resort.
She briefly shows how hectic the space can be as she and other athletes prepare for the day’s events.
Representatives for the athletes mentioned in this article did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
“The bed sucks”
The Olympic Village was created in 1924 to bring together thousands of world-class athletes under one roof.
Since then, the facilities have acquired their own lore outside of the iconic games themselves, with stories of endless parties and sexual escapades.
The villages, which change every year, have also come under criticism. Athletes complained about the lack of air conditioning at the London 2012 Olympic Village, and perhaps the worst recent case was at the Rio 2016 Olympics, when the village was labelled “uninhabitable” because of the poor condition of the facilities.
While the issues raised about the Paris Olympic Village are not as drastic, young Olympians online are highlighting aspects of the living conditions that cause some inconvenience.
Celia Dupre, a Swiss rower, shared a TikTok on July 23, claiming that athletes from most nations have opted for hotels over the Olympic Village because the resort can be far from event venues, despite organizers’ promises that their accommodations would be 25 minutes from competition venues.
But the rower added she was not “necessarily angry” about the change of accommodation, partly because the village’s cardboard beds, which have received much attention online, were uncomfortable during her one-night stay.
“We stayed one night in the village and I didn’t sleep,” she says in the video. “The cardboard bed was very uncomfortable, hard as a rock. And then the Olympic duvet was really itchy and it was really hot.”
Rooms in the Olympic Village feature cardboard beds made as part of the organizers’ sustainability efforts. Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images
American gymnast Simone Biles commented in another TikTok video that “the bed sucks” and that she is going to get a mattress topper to fix it.
Cardboard beds were previously used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village. Several athletes had previously complained about the bed, but American fencer Katherine Holmes previously told Business Insider that they were not as uncomfortable as some claimed.
90 degree heat with no air conditioning
Dupré also said the complex does not have air conditioning but a water cooling system that is supposed to keep the facility cool. Temperatures are expected to reach 32°C in Paris this week.
Water-cooling systems are generally considered more efficient than air conditioning, but there is no way to set an exact temperature, Olympic officials told The Washington Post. The rooms are equipped with thermostats that control the speed of the water flow, which can change the room temperature by as little as 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the report.
Laurent Michaud, the director of the Olympic and Paralympic villages, told The Associated Press last year that the cooling system is supposed to keep the interior temperature of the apartments between 73 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
The cardboard beds and water cooling system are part of the Olympics’ sustainability efforts to reduce the games’ overall carbon footprint, according to the AP.
“There’s water in the walls, it’s supposed to be a cooling system, but it was really hot, and we were on the second or third floor,” Dupre said in the video. “I can’t imagine people on the upper floors.”
Chari Hawkins, an American track and field athlete, highlighted the lack of privacy while changing in her village apartment in a TikTok post on Saturday.
“There’s no curtains. There’s no curtains. There’s no curtains,” Hawkins repeats in the video.
As a DIY solution, Hawkins showed how she hung a large towel over a “really sticky” part of the window frame to get privacy.
“It works perfectly, but I would say you have to have a clock,” she said. “Because it’s sticky. And it’s going to fall off eventually. So if I get out of the shower or I’m changing, I put this on and I literally change as fast as I can.”
“I need a Chipotle Bowl ASAP”
Food at the Olympic Village in Paris has also been the subject of complaints from athletes.
IOC President Thomas Bach tastes food from a salad bar during his tour of the Olympic Village ahead of the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. David Goldman/Pool/Getty Images
Zahria Allers-Liburd, a track and field athlete representing St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, posted a TikTok on Friday in which she gave a thumbs-down gesture to food.
“I’ve been eating every day since I had to eat Olympic Village food,” she wrote, adding in the caption, “All kidding aside, I lost 5 pounds in a few days. I need a Chipotle Bowl ASAP.”
An Olympic spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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