MITCHELL JOHNSON: Harry Garside and Shayna Jack punching above weight despite dodgy Paris athletes village

The Paris Olympics is well underway and there is plenty going on.

I personally love seeing Australia’s gold medal count in the first week of the Olympics, with us generally doing so well in the pool.

I especially love seeing the United States media change, or fudge, their medal tally rankings to total medals when they aren’t at the top of the universally-used gold medal count.

Although I didn’t see the entire opening ceremony and I wasn’t one of the fully-committed fans either waking or waiting up to watch it, I did see parts of it.

The stand-out for me was seeing a favourite French heavy metal band Gojira absolutely nail their epic performance.

It was the first time a heavy metal band had performed at an Olympics all while hanging off the side of a building strapped to a harness and head-banging away.

As for the Olympic village, it’s normally a highlight for the athletes. A place that is home for the next few weeks or so.

Plenty of athletes are also on TikTok and other social media, documenting their time in the village for all their followers to see.

A few Aussies, like Harry Garside, are even running tests on their cardboard beds by filming themselves jumping and diving onto them.

But on a serious note, the athletes village should be a place that is comfortable for them. Our best athletes shouldn’t be waking up feeling sore because of the beds they are laying in.

And before the naysayers pipe up and say “toughen up, they are spoilt, blah, blah, blah” the thing with elite athletes is, they are finely tuned. They need to get the right amount of sleep to perform at their very best.

They need the fuel, more than two lamb chops each day and they need all the things they had while they were home preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Yes, they can adapt and they will find ways to manage these situations. For example, the food situation has been a talking point with meat running out on the first day.

Many athletes compete in weight class events and others have a certain weight they need to hit to be at their best.

Maybe this is a reason why we haven’t seen Olympic and world records broken in the pool.

All I’m trying to say is, I feel all the athletes deserve the best facilities and to be given what they need, like a good bed so they can turn up and give it their all.

I’m sure they are being looked after mostly, but when I see those stories pop up, it just makes me wonder why these facilities aren’t better to start with.

In saying all this, Australia has been great to watch in the pool.

It was great to see fellow SAS contestant Shayna Jack get gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

What I remember about Shayna on the show was that she was very determined to swim again and go to the Olympics.

Her ability to go through what she did and to come back so strongly shows true character and determination. That’s the sort of thing Aussies like to see.

While there are many other moments that I could speak of, the moment between Titmus and O’Callaghan in the 200m freestyle final was special.

Yes, the race was incredible, but it was the moment on the podium that shows true respect, admiration and sportsmanship between the swimmers. I love seeing Aussies lead the way when it comes to these kinds of moments. To me that is healthy, respectful competition.

While we have seen plenty of great results and performances, one of the moments that was tough to watch was boxer Garside’s interview after losing in the first round.

I can totally understand that sickening feeling where you believe you have let your country, friends and family down.

Harry even said himself that his expectation was high. He wanted gold after getting close in Tokyo and he explained his mindset was different this time. He felt he had been too nice in three years ago.

This is the tough part about sport – maybe even tougher when it comes to the Olympics - when you are working towards your ultimate goal.

Gold is what every athlete wants. He should hold his head high. We know he gave it his best, but unfortunately it just wasn’t his night and he can learn from this and use it as motivation for the future.

With so much left to come from Paris the challenge for us at home has been trying to watch as much as possible of what can even feel like an overwhelming amount of sport.

I was listening to the radio when even the host of the show said that he found it funny he was watching sports that he normally wouldn’t sit and watch.

I feel the same way when the Olympics come around, I’m happy to sit a watch fencing, I then find myself researching the sport and its rules.

That to me, is one of the best things about the Games, expanding your sporting horizons.