The 'woke' Paris Olympics is distracting us from what really matters

While I'm not usually a big sports watcher (apart from the Maltidas), there's a special place in my heart for the Olympics. It's truly inspiring.

The superhuman feats of athletes from every nation, the triumphs, sportsmanship, the emotional backstories, the proud mums and dads, the roar of the crowd of the stadium watching in awe and the fans back home cheering it all on. Not to mention how it conveys valuable lessons for kids and, in fact, all humans about chasing your dreams, whatever they are.

So I’m kind of bothered that the Olympics has been drawn into a debate about "wokeism" rather than the humanity that unites us. Woke-click-bait stories continue to dominate as some folks are outrageously incensed that the organisers of this year's event are attempting to run the greenest Olympics in history.

Paris 2024 pledged to halve the event’s carbon footprint compared to the average of previous Summer Games. The Athletes' complex in the northern suburbs of Paris was built to showcase environmentally friendly technology.

Cardboard beds become symbol of culture war

Pundits reckon the greenies have gone too eco-friendly and are jeopardising athletes’ chances of setting world records, despite 26 records being smashed at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Cardboard beds in the Athlete’s Village have become the symbol of a culture war gone mad.

Before the Olympians even arrived at the village, the cardboard beds were labelled as “anti-sex” beds, despite the reason they have been used being that they will prevent 15,000-bed bases from ending up in landfill.

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According to Gilad Cohen, Co-founder of trendy Australian cardboard bed base brand Yona, the beds at the Olympics are sturdy, sustainable, and even sex-proof.

"Cardboard is an amazing material for a bed base that can be used for sleeping, relaxing, watching TV, and any other bedroom activities," he said, stating that Yona beds are expected to last 10 plus years.

Rather than being woke, Cohen reckons the big issue is the mattresses on top of the cardboard bed bases.

"They are very skinny and are rock-solid. Even the "soft" mattresses are uncomfortable and rock-hard. The organising committee may have skimped out on buying comfortable mattresses,” he said.

It didn't bother US nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky. "I've slept well the last two nights, so I have no complaints," she said recently.

Olympics Village slammed by pundits

Even food in the Olympic Village has been dragged into the culture wars — as organisers vowed to make over 60 percent of food served vegan.

While dining hall is open 24 hours a day and serves an estimated 40,000 meals daily designed to appeal to the athletes from all the 206 countries competing, organisers were forced to act amid the vegan controversy with Aussies joking that the village was "running out of meat".

While some sportspeople have found clout online having a whinge about the food, others have taken a more measured approach.

"I would say the food is decent," US track and field sprinter Anna Hall said in a piece on USA Today.

She said that she's a "picky eater" like much of the American team. "So I don't think it's our favourite. But we have a training site that the Americans go to, and they have different meals for us there, so it hasn't been hard to find food."

Yet the focus has been on food deemed "too healthy". Don't worry about the Aussies in Paris, though; according to the New York Times, we took three tons of tuna, 10,000 muesli bars, 2,400 meat pies, and even flew three baristas from award-winning coffee roasters to keep our athletes well-fed and caffeinated.

Another big issue we’ve been hearing about is the lack of air-con. Critics were none too pleased about the geothermal cooling system that uses cool water pumped from deep beneath the ground as a green alternative.

Despite pledging to be air-conditioning free, the Paris Olympic Village was fitted with 2,500 temporary cooling units that enabled teams to order portable air-conditioning units at their own expense.

Paris mayor highlights what's really most important

But these apparent obstacles haven't deterred everyone.

Obviously, we Aussies are adaptable under any circumstance. With eighteen gold medals, Paris has become our most successful Olympics ever.

And surely as inspiring as Olympic success is there are some things which are more important.

The final word goes to Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who heads the Olympics infrastructure group Solideo: "I have a lot of respect for the comfort of athletes, but I think a lot more about the survival of humanity."

After all, there would be no Olympics on a dead planet.

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