Paris Olympics are shiny, thrilling TV success, despite some ugly on- and off-camera moments

The Paris Olympics have so far shown plenty of memorable competitive moments, and plenty more are probably in store before the games conclude Aug. 11. But they've also made headlines with an unusually high number of off-the-field hullabaloos. 

Kicking off with controversial opening ceremonies that featured drag queens in a sendup of the Last Supper scene from the Bible, the image of the Paris Games has been tarnished by threats, political controversies, and housing and sanitation complaints. 

The steadiest drumbeat for criticism has centered around athlete housing around Paris, which started weeks before the competition with worries about air conditioning amidst the hot Parisian summer.

One participant, U.S. gymnast Frederick Richard brought his own mattress to France to avoid the cardboard bedding organizers gave athletes in part to make it hard for them to meet for sexual trysts.  

“I ordered my bed already, shipped it here,” said Richard, who earned a bronze medal in the team competition. “I had a comfy bed from the start.” 

U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff – the U.S. flag bearer for the opening ceremonies – said via social media early in the week she was the only Team USA female tennis player still staying in the Olympic Village: The others all fled in favor of hotels.

“Ten girls, two bathrooms,” Gauff said in a video explaining their decision, before the U.S. Open champion was eliminate in a third-round match, in which she argued with the chair umpire over a call.

Meanwhile, NBC is reporting big prime-time viewership on its network and Peacock streaming service – up 79% compared the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games. Through the first five days of the games, an average total of 34 million people were consuming prime-time coverage on them, according to NBC, based on data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

NBC also said it attracted nearly 35 million viewers for its Tuesday coverage, which included the women’s gymnastics team finals, in which the United States took gold, msn.com reports.

U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles, among the favorites in the 100-meter sprint, said there was a lack of privacy in the village. And Australian swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus said she would have broken her own world record in the 400-meter freestyle in Paris if the Olympic housing had been more comfortable. 

To make matters worse, the consensus among athletes from many nations is that the food in the Olympic Village is inadequate and lacking protein, a problem serious enough to impact performances (though, to be fair, the chocolate muffins are a hit). 

Away from the housing, at least some athletes have had trouble keeping their food down. 

Triathlon practices in Paris’ iconic Seine River were canceled due to the cleanliness of the water, and the men’s race was delayed a day until tests revealed water levels were (barely) clean enough for swimmers.

But at the finish line of the men’s race, Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk, a pre-race favorite, repeatedly and powerfully vomited, reportedly due to something he swallowed during the swim (he finished ninth).

A participant in the women's race, Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen, said that during the swim she “felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much” (she finished 24th).

The drag show Last Supper parody at the opening ceremonies sparked more than just angry complaints: U.S. tech company C Spire pulled its advertising from the Olympics in protest to what it called an “affront,” and the Mississippi-based company found an unlikely ally in Iran’s extremist leader Ali Khamenei, who condemned what he called “insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions.” 

Other hot button issues have also been on display in Paris, including the banning of Russian and Belarussian athletes in protest of the war in Ukraine.

Additionally, there were controversies in women’s boxing regarding two pugilists who last year had failed gender eligibility criteria but who passed the same tests this year.

After one match, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni  – who’d just arrived in Paris from a four-day state visit to China – lost her temper after Italian female boxer Angela Carini lost to Algerian Imane Khelif, one of the high-testosterone boxers, after just 46 seconds.

“In an effort not to discriminate we discriminate,” an angry Meloni said. 

But the most serious cases involved overt antisemitism and death threats, including Nazi salutes and “Heil Hitler” chants during an Israeli soccer game against Mali, prompting organizers to provide the Israeli team with elite police protection.

Earlier, there were reported death threats against three unnamed Israeli athletes, which Israeli officials said took place after Iranian groups published personal information about the Olympians. Reports said French law enforcement was collaborating with Israeli security to carry out an investigation into the threats.