10 people would be too crowded.
Coco Gauff has revealed that she is the only female tennis player from the U.S. team still living inside Paris’ Olympic Village after chaotic living conditions forced the rest of her teammates to take refuge in hotels.
Fresh from leading the Olympians as the flag bearer at Friday’s opening ceremony, Gauff gave the U.S. women’s tennis players a seven-second tour of the $1.6 billion housing complex.
“10 girls, 2 bathrooms. #OlympicVillage,” the 20-year-old tennis phenom wrote in a TikTok video on Saturday.
The video shows Olympians getting their hair and makeup done and getting changed in several rooms inside the hectic suite.
The Olympic Village spans three cities north of Paris: Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Île-Saint-Denis. The complex was built to accommodate 14,250 Olympic athletes over the 18-day Games.
One social media user suggested the players should move to hotels, and Gauff revealed that some players had already moved there.
“All the other women’s tennis players have been moved to a hotel, so now there are five women and two bathrooms,” Gauff said.
Gauff added that the room accommodates eight people.
Several Olympians have expressed dissatisfaction with cheap materials, such as “anti-sex” cardboard mattresses, that the Olympic Village in Paris used for its furnishings.
Gauff said she borrowed a mattress topper from the U.S. archery team to counter the thin polyethylene mattress.
Gauff also said that she and her roommate kept their room “very clean” for the “health of all of us.”
The video, which has been viewed more than 535,000 times, was posted the day after Gauff served as a flag bearer alongside basketball star LeBron James.
James and the U.S. basketball team also won’t be staying in the Olympic Village.
“The last few times that I’ve been to the Olympics, we’ve spent a fair bit of time in the Olympic Village and really felt like we were part of the team,” U.S. Team Kevin Durant told USA Today. “Sometimes we’re outside of the Olympic Village, but we get to have some time to ourselves right before the opening ceremony.”
Her choice to lift “Old Glory” made her the youngest and first tennis player to do so for the United States.
Although she was selected by her teammates, USA track and field legend Michael Johnson said he was “disappointed” and felt the honor should have gone to someone else.
“I was hoping for Simone Biles or someone from a traditional Olympic sport. I think they were going for the popularity stakes,” Johnson said during the BBC’s Olympics coverage.
Biles did not attend the opening ceremony because her first competition was scheduled for Sunday, when athletes were expected to be on their feet for nine hours.
The world number two will make her Olympic singles debut on Sunday when she takes on Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic on Court Philippe Chatrier.
On Saturday, Gauff and doubles partner Jessica Pegula defeated Australian pair Ellen Perez and Daria Saville 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of women’s doubles.
Gauff will also be paired with American tennis star Taylor Fritz in the mixed doubles event, which is scheduled to begin on July 29.
