Team Ireland's chef de mission Gavin Noble feels that everything is set up at the Olympic Village for Irish athletes to achieve success at Paris 2024.
Ireland's representatives at the Olympics have started to arrive in France ahead of the official launch of the games this Friday, and many have begun settling into their temporary home five miles north of the centre of Paris.
Noble, a London 2012 Olympian himself in men's triathlon, is responsible for ensuring that everyone navigates the environment with as little fuss as possible, and it's so far so good from his point of view.
"It's very spacious, very new," Noble told RTÉ Sport from the village. "Most of the athletes compare it to Tokyo and it’s very different. Not that the Tokyo village had anything wrong with it, it was just Covid.
"Everything is good, athletes are coming in, we’ve got a really nice position in the village beside France. When you rock up and France are next door to you, you’re doing something right.
"We’re very happy with where we are. The step count should be low in terms of polyclinic, transport, food. In my little mad world, those things are important.
"The village is good, everyone is happy with their room temperatures and everything else, so no excuses."
Ireland will have its biggest ever Olympic contingent in Paris, with a 133-strong squad set to compete across 14 sports over the next fortnight.
While Noble acknowledges that it is difficult to appease everyone in the team, he is confident that everything is in place for athletes to prepare for their events, and to allow them to decompress afterwards.
"I don’t think you can keep everyone happy and I certainly don’t intend to try and keep everyone happy," he said. "But I think we’re doing a pretty good job in terms of having a focus on performance and what they need and we’ll get there. My joy would be if they enjoy the games, especially post-event.
"We’re now having to focus on switching from enjoying the village to a focus on performance. This environment has to be a performance environment and we’re trying to keep it that way."
With 133 athletes comes 133 families, and while access is important, Noble is satisfied that Ireland's competitors will have enough space to focus on their performance.
"This has to be a performance environment..." - Ireland chef de mission, Gavin Noble wants the athletes to enjoy the Olympic experience with a real focus on performance. #rtesport #paris2024 pic.twitter.com/CjSKlU8e1a
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 23, 2024
"They have a little bit of access," he said. "We have one female in the rugby team who has access to her newborn in terms of feeding, which is a really nice development for her and everyone involved.
"The parents and the families have been great in terms of understanding this is the biggest event of the athletes' lives, the biggest week of their lives, and most are leaving them alone.
"We’ve done a lot of work with the families and they’re as much part of the team and the experience. We’ve got hospitality venues across Paris. They’ll be able to enjoy the games, not from afar, but I think they’ll leave the athletes to it until after the event."
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
