Taco Tuesdays, baristas and cardboard beds: How the Australians are embracing village life

Paris: At the Tucker Box Bistro it’s “Taco Tuesday” and Australia’s finest athletes are gathered around, just shooting the breeze, before what might be the greatest fortnight of their lives.

Just around the corner there’s another group, with a barista serving up the types of flat whites that you would expect in Brunswick or Balmain. You can grab one of these before or after jumping into an ice bath, routinely kept at a chilly 15 degrees, in the Rainforest Recovery Centre or book a massage via the team app on your phone.

Australia’s athletes are making themselves at home in the athletes’ village in Paris.Credit: Eddie Jim

Welcome to the Paris athletes’ village Australian-style, where most of the 460 athletes who will wear the green and gold over the coming few weeks will call home.

It’s a seven-storey apartment block where the windows of the lower floors sport images of Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef, and more than 5000 pieces of artwork submitted by 300 schools. On the outside banners reading “Australia”, “Merci Paris” and “Allez Aus” are draped across the balconies.

There’s an endless supply of Weet-Bix, Nutri-Grain, Vegemite, frozen meals and overnight oats. It’s basically a Woolworths Metro (which has supplied the stock) on hand for anyone who feels peckish.

They have enough coffee for about 20,000 shots and 10,000 muesli bars in storage. More than 1.4 tonnes of cereal was sent from Australia, along with 3200 kilograms of tuna and 340 kilograms of rice. Slushy machines keep energy drinks and protein shakes cold and flowing constantly.

Australia’s pantry is overflowing.Credit: Eddie Jim

These were some of the lessons learnt from the Tokyo Games, says Anna Meares, the legendary track cyclist and Australian chef de mission, who can also be seen pedalling around the village on one of the thousands of bikes anyone can grab to get around the 300,000 square metres of walkways, green spaces and buildings of different sizes and colours.

“When I took on this job, one of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Is the barista coming back?’ Meares says. “I’m like, ‘Why was the barista so good?’ And they said that it gave them a chance to socialise. So we’re trying to bring those normal elements in for them.”

Just after lunch on Tuesday, the rock stars of the Australian team – the swimmers – checked in ahead of their competition beginning on Saturday. They are welcomed with an informal induction into their new community, sitting around the “yarning circle” – an intimate space designed for the athletes to escape and inspired by Indigenous Australian culture.

Here, says Meares, there is no hierarchy nor digital distractions. It was decorated by Brad Hore, a two-time Olympic boxer, Aboriginal health worker and artist.

Australia’s swimmers arrive at the village and sit around the “yarning circle”.Credit: Eddie Jim

“The idea is that around that yarning circle, we’re all equal,” she says. “We’re all on the same level. It doesn’t matter what sport, what profile you bring, what position you hold within this team.”

Kaarle McCulloch, also a former Olympic track cyclist and one of several deputy chefs de mission, reminds the new tenants that they are among just 4649 Australians to be Olympians, before sharing her own trauma of missing cycling gold in 2012, and how she found support from her peers.

Eamon Sullivan, a former sprint swimmer and three-time Olympic medallist, took the new residents through some housekeeping. Things like how to connect to Wi-Fi, where to send your washing and to be conscious of what you post on social media. Plugging the sponsors was high on the list.

When the first athletes arrived last week, they found bedrooms decorated with pink beanbags, blue Paris 2024 doona covers and “Dream your exploits of tomorrow” written on the bedhead.

Organisers have supplied the village with 300,000 condoms, following a 2020 Tokyo Olympics that featured 150,000 condoms despite an intimacy ban in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. They stress that in Paris, the city of romance, no such ban exists.

“On the field of love, play fair. Ask for consent,” one wrapper reads. “No need to be a gold medallist to wear it!” reads another.

The beds are made of cardboard, similar to those from Tokyo, which some believed were designed as “anti-sex”.

Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns joked in a video on social media that after her first night’s sleep, the bed had left her needing a massage.

Her teammate, and roommate for their time in Paris, Gabi Palm jumped in: “My back is about to fall off!”

The village’s cardboard beds have prompted much debate.Credit: Eddie Jim

But women’s rugby sevens star Sharni Smale says she’s sleeping well.

“You can see how good they are – you can jump on them and bounce around on a jumping castle, so all good there,” she says. “We’re here to be professionals, and you just get dealt your cards right, so I’m really comfortable in my bed.”

Men’s hockey player Aran Zalewski says you can subscribe to different narratives.

“For us, we’ll just be telling ourselves these beds are comfy,” he says. “If we’re thinking about not breaking a record because of the bed, we’ll be concerned. We love them.”

Most mornings, athletes have woken up to the singing of competitors from their Pacific and Oceania region neighbours, including Fiji, Samoa and the Marshall Islands.

A boulangerie is set up at the mouth of the village which will churn out more than 2000 baguettes, croissants, pains au chocolat and focaccia daily, and even offer baking classes for athletes seeking respite from the gruelling competition. At the post office, athletes and team members can create their own custom stamps to send packages home.

But the big guys still rule the roost. Team USA wanted to be next to the main food hall, insisting its athletes should expend as little energy as possible getting around the village. They have ended up around the corner from the main restaurants, which has room for 3300 people and promises 500 different dishes – but no chips. The menu rotates every eight days, meeting the dietary requirements of all athletes and staff.

There are lots of “grab and go” points where athletes can eat on the fly. But no alcohol is provided.

Team USA’s Jordan Chiles, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera in the athletes’ village.Credit: Getty Images

Team GB is on an island, the Chinese demanded a quiet corner, while the home nation was given first choice of location. Its 621 members are housed in three blocks decorated in the colours of the French flag.

The village, which will be home to 14,250 Olympians and later 9000 Paralympians, had the input of 41 architects. French President Emmanuel Macron promised the most environmentally friendly Games, and the site – formerly a mixture of industrial units and derelict buildings – has been built with “low-carbon concrete” and runs on 100 per cent renewable energy.

All the food that will be consumed there comes from sustainable, certified sources. Solar panels on the rooftops will help satisfy local electricity needs.

But the village has been met with criticism for its less-than-luxurious accommodation. The units – which mostly consist of three rooms, each fitting two single beds, and a couple of bathrooms – have been designed to be turned into permanent homes. Critics have said the village is marked by a typically French architectural “rigidity” present in suburban council estates.

For the opening ceremony, those Australians who don’t attend will watch in communal areas in front of big screens. There are plans for their own little march in the village, as well as some street cricket.

“I have to say, we worked extremely hard to get this ready for the athletes, and when we welcomed our first athletes in, we felt like we had won a gold medal,” says Meares.

“It was a really special moment to see it finally being used in the way that we were hoping.”

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