The goody bags handed out to every athlete competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics included a £3 air freshener and a £1,049 gift.
Almost 11,000 athletes are taking part in this summer’s Games and even if the majority will miss out on Olympic medals, they will at least take home some gifts courtesy of the Paris goody bags.
New Zealand rugby player Tyla King uploaded a video to TikTok showing exactly what the Olympians are given in the goody bags.
Tokyo 2020 gold medallist King unpacked a black tote bag with the Olympic logo imprinted on the front and the words ‘Athlete 365’ written in white letters.
First out of the bag was a large Olympics flag with the words of some values such as ‘solidarity’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘respect’ imprinted.
The athletes were also given two water bottles – one courtesy of Coca-Cola and another from Powerade – and a bag containing various products.
Two bottles of Head & Shoulders shower gel were in the bag, along with a bottle of hand sanitizer and a Febreze air freshener.
The bag also included a tube of Oral toothpaste and a toothbrush, though the main attraction was undoubtedly a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip phone worth £1,049.
‘For the last nine years my phones have been courtesy of the Olympics,’ said King, revealing it is not the first time athletes have been given new mobiles.
While Olympians were treated to some unexpected gifts in their Paris goody bags, there has been widespread criticism over the conditions inside the Olympic Village.
The village was not fitted with air conditioning so 2,500 temporary cooling units have been fitted in light of concerns about heat in the French capital.
Australia’s superstar swimmer Ariarne Titmus believes she has starred in Paris despite the conditions in the village.
‘It probably wasn’t the time I thought I was capable of, but living in the Olympic Village makes it hard to perform,’ Titmus said recently.
‘It’s definitely not made for high performance, so it’s about who can really keep it together in the mind.’
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen, meanwhile, believes athletes are being hampered by conditions in Paris.
‘There’s multiple factors that make village life far from ideal,’ Magnussen wrote in a column for the Australian Daily Telegraph. ‘It’s the cardboard beds, which can’t give you optimal sleep.
‘It’s the no airconditioning, which is going to play a bigger factor as the week goes. It was 20 degrees and raining yesterday. It’s going to be mid 30s in the coming days.
‘That’s going to play a factor and the Australian team having their own portable air conditioners will be a welcome relief.’
He added on the Matty & The Missile podcast: ‘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.
‘We haven’t seen this at an Olympic games before. We haven’t had this amount of complaints about a village in Olympics history.
‘We saw again tonight great results in the pool but as far as times goes, they’re well off those world (record) marks.
‘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.’
Some athletes have even decided to make their own arrangements and stay away from the Olympic Village.
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