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Vintage photos show what it was like to stay at the first Olympic Village 100 years ago

August 2, 20240
The Olympic Village made its debut at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

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Before 1924, delegations stayed in hotels, military buildings, or with local families in host cities, according to the Olympics Studies Centre.

But in 1923, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that a Games’ organizing committee was required “to furnish housing and all necessary services for athletes,” per a 2011 paper published in the Asian Social Science journal by the Canadian Center of Science and Education.

“A contract has to be formed and charges have to be fixed each time,” the IOC said. “Expenses required have to be assumed by the participating nations themselves.”

The organizers of the 1924 Paris Olympics also believed housing athletes together had benefits beyond logistics and cost.

“In bringing young people from every nation together, [the Olympic Games] help foster this sense of cordiality that teaches men to become acquainted with each other better first and then to hold each other in higher esteem, a process that the Paris Games will have greatly aided,” said Frantz Reichel, the secretary-general of the organizing committee of the 1924 Paris Olympics, according to The Olympics.

The village was primitive by today’s standards. The fenced-in area contained wooden huts separated by dirt paths.
Athletes relaxed at the Olympic Village in Paris in 1924.

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Teams reserved beds by paying a deposit, and then they were charged daily rates for bed and board, according to the Olympic Studies Centre.

Athletes were provided three meals a day — lunch and dinner included half a bottle of wine.
The first Olympic Village had amenities including a telephone service and a salon.

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Other services included laundry and telegraph and telephone access, per the Olympics Studies Centre.

The accommodation was within walking distance of the Stade de Colombes, the main stadium for the 1924 Olympics.
Some athletes stayed near their venues, such as near the shooting range at Chalons-sur-Marne.

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Not all sports held their events at the Stade de Colombes, so it made sense for athletes competing in events held outside Paris to stay near their respective venues rather than at the Olympic Village.

For example, according to the Olympics Studies Centre, athletes participating in shooting events stayed close to the venues in Reims and Châlons-sur-Marne (now called Châlons-en-Champagne), which are around 100 miles northeast of Paris.

Members of the US team stayed at Chateau Rocquencourt, a sprawling estate west of Paris.
Countries displayed their flags at the Olympic Village.

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According to the BBC, the Olympic Village was only intended to be temporary, so it was knocked down after the athletes moved out.

The Olympics Studies Centre said it wasn’t until the 1936 Berlin Olympics that buildings constructed for Olympic Villages were reused for other purposes, such as residences or museums.

After the 2024 Olympics, the newly constructed Olympic Village in the Paris suburbs will be converted into 2,500 homes, a hotel, offices, shops, and parks, among other amenities, the Olympics said.

The village in Seine-Saint-Denis is the size of 70 soccer fields and reportedly cost $1.85 billion to build. French officials hope the village will revitalize an area long associated with poverty and crime, The New York Times reported.

Its sheer size and price tag indicate just how far the Olympic Village has come since its first modest iteration in the city 100 years ago.