Aussie Olympics star says Paris Olympics are so woke they're ruining athletes' chances of setting world records

Retired Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has taken a swipe at the Paris Olympics, saying they are so eco-friendly that they're ruining athletes’ chances of setting world records. 

Magnussen won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016. He also secured the title of 100m freestyle world champion in 2011 and 2013. Magnussen retired from competitive swimming in 2019.

He believes that the pinnacle sporting event in the world has an eco-friendly, vegan-first mentality that is damaging performance.

'There’s multiple factors that make village life far from ideal,' the dual Olympian wrote in his News Corp column.

'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.

'It’s the crowded buses with no air flow. It’s all of the walking everywhere. The one thing we noticed in London was I was getting up to 6000-7000 steps a day, going from my room, to the food hall, to the bus stop, to the pool.'

Organisers of the Paris Games have been aggressive with their green approach, billing the event as the most sustainable ever.

 Magnussen however believes they've gone overboard and that the environment that has been created for the athletes might be the toughest ever to produce world record swims. 

'The lack of world records boils down to this whole eco-friendly, carbon footprint, vegan-first mentality rather than high performance,' he said.

'They had a charter that said 60 per cent of food in the village had to be vegan friendly and the day before the opening ceremony they ran out of meat and dairy options in the village because they hadn’t anticipated so many athletes would be choosing the meat and dairy options over the vegan friendly ones.

'The caterer had to rejig their numbers and bring in more of those products because surprise, surprise — world class athletes don’t have vegan diets.

'They must have watched the Netflix doco Game Changers and assumed everyone was the same. But let me tell you, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer — none of those guys are on a vegan diet.' 

Conditions in the athletes village have already raised eyebrows among the Aussie contingent.

The 'anti-sex' cardboard beds went down like a lead balloon with water polo star Tilly Kearns and her teammate Gabi Palm, who said 'my back is about to fall off' after their first night.

Tennis star Daria Saville revealed the village is nothing like being in a hotel in a social media post on Tuesday.

'We don't really have hotel-like housekeeping here in the Olympic Village, so you have to get your own toilet paper,' she wrote in a caption alongside video of herself grabbing several rolls.