Alternative guide to Paris Olympics feat. spies, an amputated finger, bananas, anti-sex beds and Snoop Dogg

The season of faster, higher and stronger is here. Over the next fortnight, expect to be pulled into plenty of conversations that will revolve around the Olympics with Paris 2024 the mood of the world.

But if sport is not your cup of tea, here’s how you can sound smarter about the Games with bits of trivia to spice up every conversation about the Paris Olympics:

When your friends speak of which top athletes are headed to Paris for the Olympics, you say: “Snoop Dogg is headed to Paris too”…

You heard that right! Rapper Snoop Dogg is headed to Paris as a special correspondent for American TV network NBC. Besides his studio and field of play duties while working for NBC, the rapper whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr will also carry the Olympic torch through the final stages when it passes through Paris’ Saint-Denis before the Paris 2024 opening ceremony.

Snoop Dogg recently posted a photo of himself on X standing outside Paris city hall, Hotel de Ville, with the caption: “U Ready? Paris 2024 Olympics ya digggg”.

When conversation turns to athlete struggles and sacrifices ahead of the Paris Olympics, you speak of the Australian hockey player who amputated his finger to play at Paris 2024

Also headed to Paris is Matt Dawson, who will play for the Australian men’s hockey team. What’s different about Dawson to merit a mention? Well, he has amputated a part of his right ring finger to play at the Paris Olympic Games!

The 30-year-old hockey player, who has represented the Australian team thrice at the Olympics and was part of the silver medal-winning Australian team at Tokyo 2020, had suffered a particularly gnarly finger injury when he was struck by a hockey stick in an inter-squad match in Perth. The doctors gave him a choice: he could put his finger in a cast or amputate it so that he could play in Paris in a fortnight’s time. He chose the latter option.

“I made an informed decision with the plastic surgeon at the time not only for the opportunity to play in Paris but for life after as well,” Dawson told Australia’s 7NEWS. “The best option was for me to take the top of my finger off. It’s a bit of a change at the moment and an exciting challenge, I guess. I didn’t have much time to make the decision. I had made the decision and then I called my wife, and she said, ‘I don’t want you to make a rash decision, but I had all the information I needed to make the decision not for Paris but for life after. Hopefully, I can not take too long to get back to form.”

When conversation turns to food at the Athletes Village, you can talk about the three million bananas that are being imported by Paris Olympics organisers…

At the Paris Olympics Games Village, there will be a limited spread of what France is best known for — meat, cheese and dairy products. The move comes from a desire to reduce animal protein intake and carbon footprint.

However, one thing that isn’t grown in France will be in plenty: bananas. NBC Sports reports that Paris 2024 organisers have ordered three million bananas for the Olympics.

In line with limiting the Paris Olympics’ carbon footprint, as much as 80 percent of the food will be sourced locally, thereby limiting transportation costs.

According to estimates, the Olympic Games Village will prepare 13 million meals and snacks. The International Olympic Committee says 60 percent of them will be plant-based options.

When they speak of athlete life in the Games Village, talk about the anti-sex beds in the Athletes Village

At the Games Villages for the Paris Olympics, athletes will sleep on cardboard beds, which have been called “anti-sex” beds.

These beds were first introduced at the Games Village in Tokyo 2020. But those Games three years ago were held under the shadow of COVID-19. The Paris Olympics will have no restrictions.

There was a theory gathering steam among athletes that since there are frequently new reports about amorous activities happening in the Games Village, the organisers had employed the cardboard beds to “avoid intimacy among athletes”.

However, the beds have proven to be very sturdy as per many athletes like Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan and Team GB’s diving star Tom Daley, who have both given their verdicts about the durability of the beds.

Australian tennis players Daria Saville and Ellen Perez have gone a step ahead: they took to social media to show eight different ways of testing the durability of the beds.

Before the Olympics began, there were reports that Paris 2024 organisers have made 3,00,000 condoms available in the Olympic Village. There are just over 10,000 athletes headed to Paris for the Olympics. Do the math!

Just for context, at the Tokyo Olympics there were reports that organisers had made 1,50,000 condoms available for athletes despite an intimacy ban in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Athletes checking into the Paris 2024 Games Village are reporting that condoms that organisers have given them have catchphrases on them like “On the field of love, play fair. Ask for consent” and “No need to be a gold medalist to wear it!”

When they talk about the who’s who headed to Paris for the Olympics, you talk about the spies trying to sneak into Paris

Athletes, officials and fans are not the only ones headed to Paris for the Olympics.

France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin recently announced that about 1,000 people suspected of possibly meddling for a foreign power have been blocked from attending the Olympics.

The Paris 2024 organisers carried out about 1 million background checks to scrutinize Olympic volunteers, workers and others involved in the Games as well as those applying for passes to enter the most tightly controlled security zone in Paris — along the banks of the Seine River — ahead of the opening ceremony.

The Associated Press reports that the checks blocked about 5,000 people from attending. Out of them, “there are 1,000 people whom we suspect of foreign interference — we can say spying,” Darmanin said.

And of course, if you want to brush up your sporting knowledge about the Paris Olympics, here’s our comprehensive guide to Paris 2024.

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