Paris Olympics: Athletes struggling for food at Games Village,

 July 30 (IANS) Ever since the Paris Olympics began, the organising committee has received severe criticism from foreign athletes and team members over the lack of basic facilities at the venues and Games Village. One athlete on condition of anonymity alleged to IANS that there is "no food" available in Games Village when they return after participating in their events. "And when we asked officials of the Organising Committee or volunteers, they had no answers. These basics need to be addressed by the OC (organising committee) urgently," the athlete told IANS. Another athlete said, "We are finding it difficult to explain our requirements. Even a star international tennis player -- can't name him -- also didn't get the food. Which was shocking for all of us." Earlier, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics copped significant backlash for its depiction of Leonardo da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" with "drag queens" making up for the participants. This has left many people fuming as they view it as disrespectful and hurting their religious beliefs. The Catholic Church of France expressed its disapproval, starting on its account on X: "Unfortunately, this ceremony contained scenes that mocked Christianity, which we deeply regret." The organisers later apologised for this mishap. The Indian Olympics Association (IOA) president PT Usha was not happy with the Opening Ceremony and said the event did not focus enough on the athletes. "In the opening ceremony, the organisers should have focused more on athletes. This is an athlete's event, they should give more importance to players as the attention was on them for only a few seconds, otherwise, everything was good," PT Usha told IANS. Even the IOC was not spared embarrassment as the Olympic flag was raised upside down when it was hoisted in front of all delegates at the end of the Parade of Nations route in front of the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony. It definitely was not funny for the IOC bigwigs. As far as the lack of proper food is concerned, the head of the Great Britain delegation raised this issue ahead of the first day of competitions. Many GBR athletes had to spend the night without food, forcing the delegation chief to urgently summon a chef from home to take care of their culinary needs for the rest of the Games. --IANS cs/bc