Recently, an Olympic swimmer from Australia blasted the ridiculous, woke, environmentally friendly initiatives at the Olympic Village, claiming they were detrimental to her performance. Ariarne Titmus, who has brought home a gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle and a silver medal in the 200m freestyle so far, claimed the eco-friendly living conditions are a limiting factor for the top athletes, whose performance is often fine-tuned.
On Saturday, Titmus expressed frustration when she failed to break the world record that she had previously set. She blamed the Olympic Village, stating the living conditions make top-notch performance difficult. “It probably wasn’t the time I thought I was capable of, but living in the Olympic Village makes it hard to perform,” the swimmer said after winning a gold medal.
The Olympic organizers have faced backlash from several athletes over the living conditions in the village, where the “sustainable” efforts reportedly include no air conditioning, vegan meal plans, cardboard beds, and substandard mattresses. “It’s definitely not made for high performance, so it’s about who can really keep it together in the mind,” Titmus continued.
The Australian Swimming head coach Rohan Taylor also weighed in on the suboptimal conditions for his athletes, where the team has brought in better food from outside sources alongside air conditioning units as they prepare for arguably the biggest sporting event in their career. Australian water polo standouts Tilly Kearns and Gabby Palm also criticized the bedding situation, where Palm said, “My back is about to fall off” after attempting to rest on the cardboard bed.
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen also criticized the Paris organizers for the sustainability initiatives which appear to be having a negative impact on athletes. “There’s multiple factors that make village life far from ideal,” he said. Magnussen added, “There will be many athletes across the two weeks of competition who miss out on a medal… because they’re unsettled by this new environment.”
The former swimmer offered insight based on his firsthand experience with the Olympics in the past, claiming there have never been so many problems. “We haven’t seen this at an Olympic games before. We haven’t had this amount of complaints about a village in Olympics history,” he said. Further calling out the prevalence of vegan food, he said, “I joked last night about the number of vegan options in the village, that they’re running out of meat.”
He continued, “Well, an Australian heavyweight boxer has come out. He wanted lamb chops — (but there’s a) maximum of two chops per person. The guy is 6’6″, 110(kg) at best.” While some athletes may choose a vegan-based meal, many other Olympians would undoubtedly choose protein-rich meat to improve their performance.
Magnussen also claimed that the lackluster times in the swimming events are likely due to the poor sleeping conditions, suggesting that it will come down to who can “overcome these setbacks.” He said, “I don’t think it’s a slow pool. It’s sleeping on cardboard beds… At the end of the day, it’s about who can overcome these setbacks, who can put these distractions aside.”
Watch Pat McAfee sound off on the Olympic opening ceremony below:
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