Olympic Village food vendor hits back after Team GB's Adam Peaty claims athletes found worms in their meals
7 August 2024, 10:44 | Updated: 7 August 2024, 10:47
The Olympic Village food vendor has hit back after Team GB swimmer Adam Peaty criticised the catering available at Paris 2024.
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Peaty, who finished fourth in 4x100m medley relay, claimed he knew of some athletes who had found worms in their meals at the Olympic Village. However, no photographic evidence was given.
A committee representing Sodexo Live - who are the food vendors for the Games - has since rejected the claims.
"There has been zero proof of the truthfulness of this statement, which obviously raises a rather serious allegation," the committee told TMZ Sports.
"There is no information that's been able to provide validity to this sensationalist claim."
Olympic organisers told LBC that no reports of worms in food had officially been made by Team GB athletes.
Read more: ‘There are worms in the food at the Olympic Village’: Adam Peaty slams Paris 2024 catering
It comes after Peaty also criticised the lack of meat options available in the village.
In a bid to meet sustainability pledges, organisers have aimed to make 60 per cent of all meals served meatless and a third plant-based.
“The catering isn’t good enough for the level the athletes are expected to perform. We need to give the best we possibly can,” Peaty told the i.
“Tokyo, the food was incredible, Rio was incredible. But this time around […] there wasn’t enough protein options, long queues, waiting 30 minutes for food because there’s no queuing system.
“These [complaints] are for people to get better. And the organising committee, so we’ll put these back to our team in full depth and detail.
“But it’s definitely been the best Games in terms of fans engaged with it. So you never gonna have a perfect Games.”
Peaty continued: “The narrative of sustainability has just been punished on the athletes. I want to meat, I need meat to perform and that’s what I eat at home, so why should I change?
“I like my fish and people are finding worms in the fish. It’s just not good enough.
“The standard, we’re looking at the best of the best in the world, and we’re feeding them not the best.
“I just want people to get better at their roles and jobs. And I think that’s what the athletes are the best sounding board for.”
The Olympic Committee said in a statement: "The 550 dishes on offer in the Dining Hall were developed together with the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the IOC over a period of more than a year.
"We always listen to the athletes and take their feedback very seriously.
"Paris 2024 continues to liaise closely with nutritionists of the National Olympic Committees and is ready to make any further adjustments needed to the food service."
This isn’t the first complaint Peaty, who is recovering from Covid, has expressed about Paris 2024.
Earlier this week, he hit out at the “bizarre” anti-doping rules that allowed two Chinese athletes who allegedly took banned substances to compete in the 4x100m medley relay, winning gold.
“We have to be very careful not to paint a whole nation with one brush, firstly,” Peaty told LBC’s Charlotte Lynch.
“But also, that we kind of set a punishment, or set a barrier for those people who are cheating and it’s very blatant.
“Giving each nation their own responsibility and trust in that nation to test their own athletes – it’s bizarre.
“We should have a full de-centralised testing agency that tests everyone fairly.
“I want to play fair, I swim fair, I know how hard I worked to get here.”
