From delicious chocolate muffins to unappealing, unidentifiable grilled treats, the food offered at the Olympic Village in Paris, France, left athletes from around the world divided. Taking to her TikTok page earlier this week, Team Australia boxer Tina Rahimi gave a comprehensive tour of the Village’s dining hall.
In the video, which amassed over 5.1 million views, the athlete, who is Muslim, shared what type of halal options were offered to fellow Olympians abiding by Islam’s permissible ingredients.
Highlights
- Food at the Olympic Village in Paris has left athletes divided, ranging from delicious muffins to unappealing grilled items.
- Team Australia boxer Tina Rahimi showcased the halal options available for Muslim athletes in the village dining hall.
- American shot putter Raven Saunders humorously voiced her disappointment with a tough-to-identify grilled food item.
- Singaporean swimmer Jing Quah debunked food shortage rumors but noted that the meals lacked salt.
- Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen dedicated his TikTok page to praising chocolate muffins from the dining hall.
“There's pretty much all salad bars outside, and then different types of cuisine,” Tina described.
The competitor, who will face Team Poland’s Julia Szeremeta on Friday (August 2), went on to showcase French cuisine, which at the time of filming consisted of chicken and turkey.
The food offered at the Olympic Village in Paris, France, left athletes from around the world divided
Image credits: Michael Kappeler/picture alliance
“The hall is really, really massive,” Tina exclaimed before moving toward the “little halal section.”
“So, I've got like halal Turkey,” the featherweight boxer said. “There's no chicken today and then the vegetables.”
As per the Aussie-Iranian sportswoman, the Village’s dining hall also offered pasta, dumplings, rice, noodles, an Asian selection, and more.
Image credits: Michael Kappeler/picture alliance
“Delicious,” Tina complimented the halal chicken.
Nevertheless, in a TikTok video viewed over 760,000 times, American Raven "Hulk" Saunders, who competes in the track and field’s shot put and discus throw, lip-synched to the words, "You disappointed me."
Raven added the writing: “Eating in the Olympic Village like…” while also sharing in the caption: “It's been a struggle.” The 28-year-old was seemingly trying to eat a piece of grilled substance, visibly hard to identify.
Singaporean swimmer Jing Quah debunked claims that there had been food shortages
Image credits: jingquah
Singaporean swimmer Jing Quah debunked claims that there had been food shortages in the village, asserting that she had not been served undercooked meals.
Nevertheless, the 23-year-old athlete admitted that the dining hall “lowkey always lacking salt though.”
Jing gave a candid “what I eat in a day” review in the Village, sharing glimpses in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday (July 31).
In the video, which amassed nearly 740,000 views, Jing filmed her breakfast, which consisted of mushrooms, scrambled eggs, some mozzarella, and a piece of bread.
“They also provide a whole table of garnishings and spreads,” the swimmer said before noting: “I just needed my salt though.”
She continued: “I don't usually have that much protein in the morning, but because traveling around the village and to the pool takes so long, the protein keeps me satiated till lunch.”
Team Australia boxer Tina Rahimi gave a comprehensive tour of the Village’s dining hall
Image credits: tinarahimii_
Jing further described: “This place is massive, but the queues are always so long.” She then explained that she ate a beef patty, some cod, rice, carrots, and a “salmon Wellington thing” in the French section.
For dinner, the athlete ate carrots, sweet potatoes, fish, and chicken.
The apparent breakout star emerging from the Village’s dining hall was a simple chocolate muffin.
Image credits: giveme1shot
Norwegian Olympic swimmer finalist Henrik Christiansen has seemingly dedicated his whole TikTok page to the little treat.
In one video, the 27-year-old athlete got his teammate to lipsynch to the viral TikTok sound: “I feel like you’re just here for the zipline,” replacing “zipline” with “chocolate muffin.”
At this point, Henrik turned to the camera, his mouth completely stuffed with his beloved chocolate muffin.
Tina, who is Muslim, shared what type of halal options were offered at the Olympic Village
In another hilarious clip, the swimmer filmed himself battling with a traditional French pain au chocolat before uplifting his spirit again with, you guessed it, another chocolate muffin.
This was amid controversy around the Olympic Village’s living conditions, in part prompted by Ariarne Titmus, who just won an Olympic gold medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Swimming.
Retired Olympic swimmer James Magnussen took a dig at the Olympics, writing in an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph on Monday that the Olympic Games were about “trying to get the perfect performance in the most imperfect environment.”
Image credits: jingquah
The fellow Aussie swimmer, who won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016, wrote: “We’ve already heard the likes of Ariarne Titmus talk about how difficult life is in the village, so we can’t dismiss those complaints as an athlete whining because they didn’t win gold.”
James, who also secured the title of 100m Freestyle World Champion in 2011 and 2013 before retiring from competitive swimming in 2019, noted that the Olympic Village’s cardboard beds, lack of air conditioning, crowded buses, and constant walking made “village life far from ideal.”
“You add those extenuating circumstances of village life on top of that layer of pressure and expectation in a nation like Australia, it’s actually amazing that athletes can manage to perform at their best or break world records at an Olympic Games,” James wrote.
Jing gave a candid “what I eat in a day” review in the Village
The 33-year-old argued: “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 2024 Paris Olympic Games famously launched with a rain-soaked opening ceremony that drenched athletes and spectators alike.
Nevertheless, athletes are currently enduring the opposite experience, as most of France has been under heat warnings, with temperatures in Paris hitting 36 degrees Celsius (97 Fahrenheit).
Image credits: henrikchristians1
“The lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance,” James wrote.
He further slammed the food options: “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.”
Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen has seemingly dedicated his whole TikTok page to the Village's chocolate muffin
James shared: “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.
Image credits: amelie_lilly
“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.
“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.”
The Olympic Village's food and living conditions have sparked controversy lately
Image credits: james.magnussen
The swimming star concluded: “For athletes like Ariarne to come out and win gold medals under those circumstances, it makes them even greater.”
“I think in the future, at Brisbane 2032, they should look at whether a village is an ideal environment to host an Olympic Games from a real estate perspective, a geographical perspective, a cost perspective, and a facility-wise perspective.
“Sometime in the future a host nation or an [International Olympic Committee] will look at hotels as a feasible alternative to an Olympic Village, particularly if results don’t improve at these Games.”
"Who up in there cooking?" a TikTok user asked
