Cardboard beds, celeb athletes, so-so food: Team Singapore arrives at Paris Olympic Village

PARIS – Saiyidah Aisyah is a battle-hardened rower who has come back from retirement after Rio 2016 and injury to make it to her second Olympics.

Even then, the Singaporean was star-struck when she saw two-time Wimbledon men’s singles champion Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympic Village dining hall when she arrived on July 22.

Saiyidah, 36, said: “I saw (fellow Spanish tennis star Rafael) Nadal first but he was already swarmed with people. When I went up to Alcaraz, I was telling him – I’m so sorry, I have to be one of these people who annoy you – and he was so nice and said it’s okay. I was grinning from ear to ear.”

Welcome to the Paris 2024 Olympic Village in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, where sporting royalty mingle with the 14,250 athletes and officials housed in a 54ha site with 82 buildings. This will later be converted into homes for 6,000 residents in a community that incorporates apartments with workplaces, shops, public facilities and green spaces.

The bigger countries have gone to some lengths to help their athletes feel at home. China put up large banners with a panda peeking out, while the Canadians installed a wooden moose at the entrance of their block.

As of July 25,

Team Singapore athletes

from athletics, badminton, fencing, golf, rowing, shooting, swimming and table tennis have checked in and share the same block as athletes from Ethiopia and Latvia. The Singapore contingent have been allocated 44 beds and all their rooms have been equipped with air coolers or portable air-conditioners to

beat an expected heatwave.

Sailors Ryan Lo and Maximilian Maeder have been testing their equipment at their base and competition venue in Marseille, shooter Teh Xiu Hong is in Chateauroux, while canoeist Stephenie Chen will arrive later.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village made the news for its eco-friendly, purportedly “anti-sex” cardboard beds – one can choose from soft, moderate and super firm mattress – which have returned for Paris 2024.

American gymnast Aleah Finnegan might have complained about hers looking like hot glue but British diver Tom Daley vouched for its sturdiness by jumping on his while Saiyidah said she had a good night’s rest on hers.

For many, the village is home for the next few weeks. It is set up like a mini city with a grocery store, coffee shop, pharmacy, post office, a souvenir shop filled with Paris 2024 merchandise, open spaces to relax (there is a resident DJ) and a sprawling dining hall across six rooms featuring French, international, Asian, halal and vegetarian cuisine.

Fencer Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman, 24, noted that while the menu changes, the quality of the food can be hit-and-miss.

But there are no plastic sheets separating diners at the tables that accompanied the Covid-19 social-distancing measures at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, which she said has made it “so much easier to interact with others”.

The training and competition venues have also received a thumbs up. The water at Vaires-sur-Marne, about an hour away from Paris, is clean, said Saiyidah while Kiria noted “there are even supplies for us to fix our equipment” at the village.

Badminton players are also satisfied with a slight but manageable drift at the new 8,000-seat Porte de la Chapelle Arena, while Singapore’s mixed doubles debutante Jessica Tan gave her Instagram followers a sneak peek of the tastefully designed purple shuttlecock tubes that will surely be a collectible.

The memories of an Olympics are equally cherished. Saiyidah said: “I felt a lot of pressure during my first Olympics. We are here to compete but I forgot to enjoy everything else.

“I’m here again so it’s a good reminder I have to enjoy myself, and more than exchanging pins, meet new people and keep in touch with people all over the world through Instagram.

“That would be exciting.”