Swimmer Rages Over 'Hard' Conditions in Olympic Village, Sparks Furious Reaction from Coach
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Australian swimming star Ariarne Titmus lashed out over the conditions at the Paris Olympics even after winning a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle.
Titmus, who won the event in the Tokyo Olympics, was asked if she was disappointed that she did not break her world record in her win, even though she broke an Olympic record, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
“It probably wasn’t the time I thought I was capable of, but living in the Olympic Village makes it hard to perform,” she said on July 28.
“It’s definitely not made for high performance, so it’s about who can really keep it together in the mind,” she said.
Australian Swimming head coach Rohan Taylor said the Olympics have always been a unique challenge for athletes.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
Taylor said the Australian Olympic Committee has provided private transportation, extra food and air conditioning to deal with the Paris heat.
The Olympic Village has been a source of grumbling due to cardboard bed frames that are part of the Olympics’ commitment to sustainability.
Retired Olympic swimmer James Magnussen said in an Op-Ed in Australia’s Daily Telegraph that the Olympic Village is worth complaining about.
“There’s multiple factors that make village life far from ideal. It’s the cardboard beds, which can’t give you optimal sleep. It’s the no airconditioning, which is going to play a bigger factor as the week goes,” he wrote.
“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 lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance,” he wrote.
“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,” he wrote.
“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,” he wrote.
“It seemed Paris wanted to be eco first, performance second at the Games,” he wrote, adding, “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.”
Titmus, who won the 200-meter freestyle in Tokyo, lost July 29 to teammate Mollie O’Callaghan, who brought Titmus onto the podium with her in celebration, according to Yahoo Sports.
Titmus appeared unhappy on the podium and cried after the ceremony was over.
“It’s tough. You’re standing beside the winner who you wanted to beat,” commentator and former Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett said.
“Let’s remember just a few weeks ago Ariarne did break the world record in this race, and she was over a second off that, so she’s probably standing there reflecting on her performance thinking, ‘If I could do what I did six weeks ago or even half a second behind that I’d be standing here as the Olympic champion in the women’s 200-meter freestyle.'”
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