‘There are worms in the food at the Olympic Village’: Adam Peaty slams Paris 2024 catering

6 August 2024, 11:12 | Updated: 6 August 2024, 13:52

Team GB swimmer Adam Peaty has slammed the catering available at Paris 2024, claiming some athletes have found worms in their meals at the Olympic Village.

This comes after Peaty finished fourth in 4x100m medley relay on the final evening of swimming at the 2024 games.

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, much to Peaty’s disappointment.

“The catering isn’t good enough for the level the athletes are expected to perform. We need to give the best we possibly can,” the silver-medal-winning swimmer told the publication,” he 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.

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“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.”

A Paris 2024 spokesperson told the i: "We are listening to the athletes and take their feedback very seriously.

"Since the opening of the village, our partner Sodexo Live! has been working proactively to adapt supplies to the growing use of the Olympic Village restaurants, as well as to the actual consumption by athletes observed over the first few days.

"As a result, the quantities of certain products has been significantly increased and additional staff have been deployed to ensure the service runs smoothly."

Peaty slammed organisers for a lack of protein options and even claimed some athletes have found worms in their fish.

“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?” Peaty continued.

“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.”

This isn’t the first complaint Peaty, who is recovering from Covid, has expressed about Paris 2024.

Olympic organisers told LBC that no reports of worms in food have been made by Team GB athletes.

Yesterday, 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.”