Aussie swimming great slams Paris decision that’s costing us world records

An Aussie world champion has come forward with extraordinary claims to expose an athlete backlash at the Paris Olympics.

James Magnussen and Ariarne Titmus

Go woke. Go choke.

That’s the message coming from some sections inside the Olympics Village with athletes registering their concerns about vegan diets and environmental projects that Paris 2024 officials are determined to have succeed.

Paris organisers have been aggressive in their approach to make the Paris Olympics the most sustainable ever held and have advertised this proudly to the world.

Some critics in the Olympic host nation have previously accused the Olympic Organising Committee of going too far and “greenwashing” the entire spectacle.

Caught in the middle of the furore are the 10,000 athletes competing at the Games.

Athletes from around the world have been complaining about the food options available in the Village, as well as the cardboard beds in their rooms and a transport system that has failed them and left plenty stranded while trying to reach training venues and official Games locations.

Australian team officials appear to have predicted how the enviro policies would impact athletes, bringing their own air conditioning units, chefs, baristas and other essential comforts.

But issues with sleeping arrangements and dining hall shortages have prompted an exodus of athletes from other countries from the village with American tennis star Coco Gauff the latest to come forward and reveal her teammates have left to seek other accomodation.

Gauff gave a seven-second tour of the American women’s tennis players living quarters inside the $1.6 billion housing complex where more than 14,000 athletes and officials are living.

Coco Gauff spoke out while Daria Saville's backside said it all. Photo: Instagram.

The video featured the Olympians doing their hair and makeup and getting dressed across a few rooms throughout the hectic suite.

“10 girls, two bathrooms. #olympicvillage,” the 20-year-old tennis phenom wrote in her TikTok video.

Several Olympians have shared their displeasure with the Paris Olympic Village including the cheap materials the Olympic Village used for furniture, including the “anti-sex” cardboard mattresses.

Gauff said she borrowed a mattress topper from the US Archery team to counter the thin polyethylene mattresses.

Meanwhile, the food options available — widely reported to be dominated by a vegan diet — are so bad that even the British team has brought its own chef.

It is easy to dismiss the concerns raised by the athletes, but Aussie swimming great James Magnussen has now spoken out to reveal there is substance to the complaints from athletes that food in the village can hamper their performance and wellbeing.

“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,” Magnussen wrote for News Corp newspapers.

Athletes of Team Australia at the Athletes' Village. Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images.

“The lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance.

“They had a charter that said 60 per cent 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 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.”

Charles Guilloy, one of the village’s senior chefs, told The New York Times before the Games that carbon footprint factors and animal wellbeing projects played major roles in the menu.

“French fries are too risky because of fire-hazard concerns over deep-fat fryers,” Guilloy said.

“No to foie gras because animal well-being is on everyone’s mind, and no to avocados because they are imported from a great distance and consume a lot of water.”

The Australian accomodation at the Village. Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images.

Event officials previously brushed off concerns about the menu, saying 500 dish options will be available to choose from in the Village — catering for the dietary desires of almost 200 countries.

But after four sessions in the pool at the Paris La Defense Arena, there have been no world records broken.

Even Ariarne Titmus said she was surprised by how slow her time was when she won gold in the women’s 400m freestyle final and talked about the environmental factors surrounding the Games having an impact across the field.

While athletes may not be happy, there are plenty around the world who are.

The Games has an ambitious target to reduce emissions to less than 1.58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – around half the footprint of London 2012 or Rio 2016.

The most significant sustainability move has been to limit new construction to a minimum. As a result, 95 per cent of the venues at the Games are existing buildings or temporary facilities.

The other notable project has been the billion-dollar cleanup of the River Seine, which has not been swimmable since 1923 as a result of severe polution.

But even that appears to be backfiring. The first training session for triathletes was abandoned and serious doubt hangs over the competition just two days out from the men’s event because of concerns over its cleanliness.