5 August 2024 – Athletes have taken centre stage at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, serving up spectacular performances at the iconic venues within the host city and across France. When they are not competing, they have been enjoying their “home away from home”, the Olympic Village, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its partners have ensured that they have access to a comprehensive range of services, aimed at making their lives comfortable and their experiences unforgettable.

Among the main services and experiences, developed with the support of the IOC Athletes’ Commission (AC) and the Paris 2024 AC, are:

• Champions Park: 1,250 athletes due to parade with their medals in front of 13,000 fans over nine days during the Games
• Athlete365 House: visited by 9,000 athletes to date
• Olympic Village nursery: available for parent athletes with young children
• Mind Zone: has already welcomed more than 2,000 athletes and their entourage members
• Athlete365 app: more than 20,000 downloads since its launch

For Paris 2024, innovative new services have been introduced at the Olympic Village – including a “Family Space” for competing parents and a “Mind Zone” to support athlete well-being. Emma Terho, a five-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medallist for Finland in ice hockey who chairs the IOC Athletes’ Commission, believes that this attention to detail, combined with the outstanding venues and crowds who have filled them, have made the athlete experience at Paris 2024 an extremely special one.

“The athletes have been working for a very long time to have this moment. At these Games, athletes have been able to perform in front of full stadiums, in front of very supportive crowds – and, as an athlete, that is what you want to experience. This is what makes the hard work worth it.”

Emma Terho, Chairs of the IOC Athletes’ Commission

Terho also explained how her Commission, which is made up entirely of Olympians, has gathered feedback from athletes from different sports and countries in the years leading up to and during the Games, so that they can help shape an athlete-centric experience.

“In the IOC Athletes’ Commission, we worked together with the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission prior to the Games to get ideas and feedback,” she said. “We’re very happy with how reactive Paris 2024 has been with the feedback that we’ve been giving.”

Champions Park celebrates Olympic medallists

Beyond the venues, athletes have received incredible support at the Champions Park, a new initiative which has given Olympic medallists the opportunity to celebrate their achievements in front of thousands of people, against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.

The Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission – which is chaired by IOC Member Martin Fourcade, a five-time Olympic gold medallist in biathlon – has championed this initiative, and the athletes have welcomed having an additional opportunity to celebrate with fans after their competition has finished.

“The Champions Park is a project I’m very passionate about, because the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission has been leading this project since day one,” explained Fourcade.

“The set-up is iconic, in one of the most beautiful places in Paris – the Trocadéro – and it’s an exceptional experience for the athletes. We wanted to create a new way to connect the athletes with the fans, and we’ve had so much good feedback already.”

Martin Fourcade, IOC Member

Olympic Village experience and new initiatives to support athlete well-being

A key part of the athlete experience is the Olympic Village, where athletes from the territories of 206 National Olympic Committees and the Refugee Olympic Team are mixing freely in a relaxed environment away from the stress of competition and the spotlight of the media, and are enjoying the range of activities on offer to them, delivered by the IOC and the Worldwide Olympic Partners.

“It’s an absolutely incredible Olympic Village, and it’s been really inspiring to see how the athletes from different sports and countries are living by the Olympic values together,” said Kaveh Mehrabi, an Olympian in badminton and Director of the IOC Athletes’ Department.

A short walk from the Olympic Village main dining hall, Athlete365 House is the main hub of activity across all Olympic Villages for athlete engagement, and it has already welcomed 9,000 athletes to discover the programmes available through the IOC to support them on and off the field of play. Here, athletes can also learn about the resources available to them from Olympic Solidarity, the IOC and the Olympic Partners. Additionally, athletes have the opportunity to learn about topics such as anti-doping and the prevention of competition manipulation, vote for their new representatives in the IOC Athletes’ Commission election, and win an exclusive set of Paris 2024 pins by participating in the educational game PinQuest, which 6,700 athletes and entourage members have already completed.

For the first time ever at the Olympic Games, parent athletes at Paris 2024 can also spend quality time with their young children in a dedicated family space inside the Olympic Village, an initiative from the IOC AC with support from TOP Partner P&G.

“This is something we’re very, very proud of. It’s really heartwarming to see the moments that [parent athletes] have been able to share with their children. It’s something very special.”

Kaveh Mehrabi, Olympian in badminton and Director of the IOC Athletes’ Department

The Athlete365 Mind Zone, delivered in partnership with TOP Partner Coca-Cola through its Powerade brand, has been another welcome addition to the Olympic Village, and provides a quiet, tranquil space for athletes to reset and try out a range of evidence-based mindfulness activities, including painting, yoga and a virtual reality experience focused on preparation for competition. Since the beginning of the Games, the space has welcomed over 2,000 athletes and entourage members. , with 92 per cent saying that they were either satisfied or extremely satisfied with the experience.

Athlete communication and digital engagement

In addition to the in-person engagement at the Athlete365 Houses in Paris, Marseille, Lille and Châteauroux, athletes have also been given new digital opportunities. An Athlete365 app was launched in the lead-up to Paris 2024 alongside the new Athlete365 website, and is designed to make it easier than ever for athletes to access the latest information and services available to them. The app has registered more than 20,000 downloads since it was launched just before the Olympic Games, with numbers increasing steadily every day.

In addition, the IOC has created new opportunities for athletes to boost their profiles by making their competition photos easily available and offering free verification on social media platforms. Within the framework of the social media guidelines for Paris 2024, athletes can also post photos and videos of the Olympic Games and share their Olympic experience with their fans on their social media accounts.

For more information about the services being provided to athletes at Paris 2024, go to Athlete365.