Adam Peaty has come under attack from Olympics catering chiefs for having “zero proof” over claims that worms were found in fish served to athletes.
The company hired by Paris 2024 to provide “Michelin star” food in the athletes village has gone on to reject all “sensationalist” criticism. Olympics organisers also backed French catering company Sodexo Live, saying the vast majority of diners have been satisfied by the food on offer.
Peaty sparked the row on Tuesday by saying a “narrative of sustainability” from the chefs in charge was failing athletes. “I like my fish and people are finding worms in the fish,” he said. “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.”
Paris 2024 and Sodexo Live claim there is no evidence to support Peaty’s claims. “There has been zero proof of the truthfulness of this statement, which obviously raises a rather serious allegation,” a committee representing Sodexo Live told TMZ Sports. “There is no information that’s been able to provide validity to this sensationalist claim.”
Peaty’s complaints came to light as it emerged 800 metres gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson had avoided village food altogether amid catering concerns.
Paris 2024, however, has said: “We have no information to be able to confirm the specific allegation. Team GB has confirmed that no such reports have been made to their staff. More generally, regarding food in the Village, our priority is to meet the needs of athletes from around the world to enable them to compete at their best. The 550 dishes on offer in the Dining Hall were developed together with the NOCs and the IOC over a period of more than a year. Paris 2024 is proposing a Dining Hall with six different zones and four culinary themes in order to cater to the nutritional needs and eating habits of athletes from around the world: World cuisine, French cuisine, Asian cuisine and African-Caribbean cuisine. We are listening to the athletes and take their feedback very seriously.”
After finishing fourth in the 4x100m medley relay on the final evening of the swimming meet, Peaty, 29, hit out at both the quantity and quality of the food.
“We need to give the best we possibly can,” he told the i newspaper. “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’re never gonna have a perfect Games.”
As part of their extensive planning, the British Olympic Association had hired an entire catering college in nearby Clichy as a performance base and athletes including Hodgkinson have been avoiding the village in favour of the food cooked by the specialist Team GB chefs.