Team USA Women’s Gymnastics Spills The Tea On Olympics Food

The Paris 2024 Olympic Village has been a hot topic ever since athletes arrived and seemingly exposed the hub for its small, modern apartments, cardboard beds, and lack of air conditioning.

The Village, which is spread across Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, and L’Ile-Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, is a massive 330,000 square meter space housing around 14,250 athletes and officials during the Olympics

The amenities include a vast dining hall, quick-service food spots, and state-of-the-art training facilities. However, despite being in Paris for this year’s Olympics, athletes won’t find French fries or other classics on the menu as these items are off-limits due to safety and ethical considerations.

As the 2024 Paris Olympics continue, athletes, including the Team USA Women’s Gymnastics team, are dishing on what the food in the Village is really like.

Sodexo Live!, the official food provider for this year’s Paris Games, provides 40,000 meals a day to fuel the athletes, but not everyone is thrilled with the menu.

Following their gold medal win, the Women’s Gymnastics Team USA spoke to reporters about what their living conditions are like in the Village. When asked what food is provided in the Village, Simone Bilesadmitted, “Like in the Village, it’s not proper French cuisine like you guys might be eating because you guys are outside the village, so for the athletes, it’s a little bit healthier.”

16-year-old Hezley Rivera then chimed in, and she didn’t hold anything back. “I don’t think it’s very good, at least what we’re having in the dining hall.”

“I definitely think French food is good, but what we’re having in there, I don’t think it’s the best, but it gets the job done,” she added.

“I thought the pizza was good,” Biles said, trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

Simone Biles and Hezley Rivera were not the first athletes to share their opinions on the food offered in the Olympic Village.

Raven “Hulk” Saunders, a standout in Team USA’s track and field team, summed up her experience in the dining hall with a candid caption: “It’s been a struggle.” She emphasized her disappointment using a popular TikTok sound, “You disappointed me.”

Emelia “Mimi” Chatfield, a 22-year-old Haitian track and field athlete, told her fans that the food is a 1/10 and is “getting worse every day.”

Tina Rahimi shared a comprehensive tour of the food dining hall on her social media, which showed huge salad bars, a pasta station, a grill menu, sides, and daily specials.

While it seems there are several options, Andy Anson, the British Olympic Association’s chief executive, told the New York Times, “There are not enough of certain foods: eggs, chicken, certain carbohydrates, and then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to athletes. They have got to improve it over the next couple of days dramatically.”

After seeing the dining hall and food options shared by Olympic athletes, many are criticizing the company behind the meals, Sodexo, for not providing the fuel they need.

“My school used Sodexo and we all got food poisoning 3+ times,” one user said.

“Not Sodexo. Omg, that explains everything,” another commented.

“Sodexo managed the cafeteria at my university about 10 years ago. So many complaints…” a third expressed.

Fans might think Olympic athletes are living it up in luxurious suites, but the reality is quite different. Olympian Suni Lee gave sports fans a peek behind the curtain with a room tour video on social media, which shows a snug, cubicle-style room just big enough for two cardboard beds, each equipped with a single pillow, and a modest metal shelving unit serving as a closet.

There is a small outdoor balcony, offering a glimpse of the city and a breath of fresh air, but there isn’t air conditioning, so select countries opted to bring their own.