Olympics 2024: Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon pictured sleeping outside at athletes’ village

An Olympic champion complaining of losing sleep over the “heat and the noise” in the athletes’ village has resorted to napping next to a park bench.

Thomas Ceccon, who is among a host of athletes who have raised complaints about living conditions and food, won the 100m backstroke gold medal despite claiming “it’s hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon”.

Saudi rower Husein Alireza has since spotted Ceccon napping and posted it on Instagram, tagging the location as inside the Olympic Village grounds. Ceccon’s federation has declined to comment on why he has taken to snoozing on a towel on grass instead of his room.

Thomas Ceccon sleeps outside at the Olympic Village complex. Photo / Instagram

It is unclear whether the picture was taken before or after Ceccon and his team-mates failed to reach the final of the 4x100m men’s medley final.

The 23-year-old has previously said of conditions in the village: “There is no air conditioning in the village, it’s hot, the food is bad. Many athletes move for this reason: it’s not an alibi or excuse, it’s the reality of what perhaps not everyone knows.”

He added that he had been “too tired” as “it’s hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon”.

“Usually, when I’m at home, I always sleep in the afternoon: here I really struggle between the heat and the noise,” he said.

Other athletes to take issue with the village include Coco Gauff, who revealed a fellow female tennis team quit the village after finding the quarters “too cramped”. French swimmer Assia Touati has also complained: “We had no AC in the bedroom but they installed it anyway because it was getting too hot.”

Olympic organisers had boasted of Michelin chefs but GB athletes have complained of shortages and insufficient quality of food, prompting them to instead flock to the private British performance lodge which is full of supplies from Aldi and has a team of on-site chefs overseen by the sports nutritionist Wendy Martinson. The lodge, which Team GB regard as a key performance advantage, is only 15 minutes by bus from the village and also has extensive facilities to relax and train.

“At the beginning of every Games there’s usually two or three issues… the big one this time is the food in the village, which is not adequate,” said Andy Anson, the Team GB chief executive. Since then, there have also been reports of a handful of overseas athletes getting food poisoning.

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