Inside the Paris Olympic Village

I have never been to the Olympic Games, but I have lots of friends who have gone to one or another. One friend from college almost made the U.S. Olympic team (he finished 5th at the trials — so close!) But I’ve never known someone who actually worked at the Games until this year. I thought it might be interesting to learn about her experiences inside the Olympic Village.

My bilingual friend Iris holds both French and U.S. citizenship, which makes her perfect for the Paris Olympics. She lives in California and is a student at Cal, and her family in Paris helped her find the job. 

Iris works for Sodexo, the food service provider for the athletes. Most of her colleagues are like her: college age and bilingual, though most live in France.

Inside the Olympic Village 

Athletes are housed in large buildings — the bigger teams get their own buildings, and the smaller ones have to share. But who gets what building is a puzzle for the organizers, and a key consideration is making sure that warring or unfriendly countries are kept away from each other. That’s why Canada’s building is in the middle — who doesn’t like the Canadians? 

Iris started her job before the athletes came, and the Village was a ghost town. But then athletes and their support staff started to arrive, along with their huge containers of equipment and supplies. The Village was buzzing! So many teams came at once that an entire lane of the Périphérique, the highway that circles Paris, was dedicated just to official Olympic traffic. 

There has been some controversy about the athlete’s housing, with its cardboard beds and lack of air conditioning. With the hot summer weather, a number of teams decided to bring their own air conditioners. Iris can see their PVC pipes sticking out the windows and can hear them buzzing all day long. 

One interesting feature of the Village: the mattress exchange station. If an athlete doesn’t like their mattress (too hard, too soft, whatever) they can exchange it for another one.

The Food

This being France, there has been a lot of attention paid to the quality of the food. The Village has six different restaurants that cater to a wide range of tastes and needs: one serves French food, one Asian food, one halal food, etc. But despite all that variety, by far the most popular dish is a giant chocolate muffin — the athletes are crazy for them. 

With all these food choices available, countries weren’t allowed to bring their own chefs. But then the English team (!) complained so much about the food that they were finally allowed an exception.

The Paris Vibe 

Despite all the worries about Paris being overrun with visitors, Iris hasn’t found the city any more crowded than usual. And the French have fallen in love with the Games — winning all those medals certainly doesn’t hurt. Iris attended some of the swimming events and said that the crowd was “insane!” And despite the worries about E. coli in the Seine, she has seen Parisians splashing in it on some of the hot summer days.

Iris also got to see how excited everyday Parisians are about the Olympics. She was on the Metro with some American team managers when someone started watching the French basketball team on his phone. Everyone in the car crowded around cheering, while the managers handed out American team pins to the kids.

Meeting People

Before the Opening Ceremony, athletes in the Village gathered in their special outfits before boarding the buses that took them to the Seine. They were all smiling and happy and snapping photos — Iris got one with Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé, a member of the French track cycling team. 

She also chatted with Caeleb Dressel, a top American swimmer, and her friend exchanged pins with an American gymnast. “I don’t know who she was,” the friend said, “but she was very nice.” A quick Google search revealed that it was none other than Simone Biles, perhaps the greatest gymnast ever!

The highlight for Iris was when she shook hands with the president of France. Emmanuel Macron was visiting the French team’s building when Iris happened to walk by. Suddenly Macron popped out and started shaking staff members hands, thanking them for their service. And there was Iris! Definitely a moment to remember.