Athletes enjoying their first days at the giant Olympic village ahead of the Paris Games

PARIS (AP) — Australian beach volleyball player Taliqua Clancy got an unexpected surprise walking around the athletes' village at the Paris Olympics on Monday.

Among the legions of other athletes from around the world, one figure stood out: French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We got to see him which was cool. I was hanging around hoping to get a selfie, but I had to come here" for a news conference, she told reporters, laughing. She probably wouldn't have got close enough, anyway, because Macron's security team ushered her away.

“But hopefully we can see a few more famous faces,” said Clancy, who is one of 66 indigenous athletes on the Australian Olympic team in Paris — six more than in Tokyo.

“I’m a proud aboriginal and it is special to have the artwork and design" in the village, the 32-year-old Clancy said.

Clancy and her teammate Mariafe Artacho del Solar were silver medalists at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

Artacho del Solar gave her first impressions of the village, where more than 14,000 athletes and officials are staying and which is the size of 70 soccer pitches.

“It has been amazing so far, it feels very safe,“ she said. ”We had a walk around today, had some good old photo of the rings.”

The village itself sits in the suburb of Saint-Denis, known in the sports world as the home to the Stade de France where France’s national soccer and rugby teams play. It is located in a formerly run-down area now transformed into a vibrant international hub for the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Games, and for the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics.

“It’s great to see a whole ton of different countries here,” United States rugby sevens center Lucas Lacamp said Monday.

The village has a large dining hall with different food stations catering for different tastes from around the world, a vast gym, training grounds for a number of sports, a polyclinic, prayer rooms and an anti-doping centre.

“I was definitely looking forward to the food court, I won’t lie about that," said New Zealand rugby sevens player Risaleanna Pouri-Lane, who won the women's gold medal in Tokyo. “It’s been pretty cool. We’ve had a couple of days to soak up the whole village and Olympic environment."

Andrew Knewstubb, a silver medalist in men's rugby in Tokyo, explained the marked difference between pandemic-marred Tokyo three years ago and Paris.

“The most noticeable thing is people are not wearing masks,” Knewstubb said, adding that he likes how athletes can now say hello to each other or come up and swap pins “without the hesitation of Covid.”

Athletes lodge in five residential areas, each named after a well-known area of Paris: Abbesses, Bastille, Dauphine, Étoile, Fêtes. With environment protection in mind, the eco-friendly village has electric cars ferrying athletes around. Pouri-Lane enjoyed riding one of the many bikes provided for athletes to use.

Former track cycling star Anna Meares is a four-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist. Meares is now the Australian team’s Chef de Mission and said decisions were made regarding the team’s residency in the village.

“There was a lot of learning to take out of Tokyo, that played in the decisions we have made in our set up," she said.

One of them was more important than it may sound.

"We have kept our barista,” she said. “One big question I asked when I took on this role was ‘Why was the barista so popular?’ And that was because it created this social hub for the athletes.”

Meanwhile, the American men's rugby sevens team are preparing for a huge game on Wednesday against host France — which boasts arguably the best player in the world in scrumhalf Antoine Dupont.

“Preparation has been good. They’ve taken really good care of us; fields were good, facilities were good," U.S. captain Kevon Williams said. "Things have been rolling smooth for us. We’re ready for the moment.”

That moment will involve facing the roar of a sell-out 80,000 crowd at Stade de France. It should be quite an experience for Williams and his teammates at France's landmark national stadium, but beach volleyball players have arguably the best location of all.

They play their matches against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower which, as iconic venues go, is hard to beat.

“I’m definitely not being biased but I think it’s the best venue of them all,” Artacho del Solar said. “It’s going to be amazing.”

They had a taste of things to come when they watched a video of the Australian men's time training there.

“We know it’s going to be electric, exciting as beach volleyball always is,” said Clancy, whose first task at her first training session was testing the wind, the depth of the sand and its grain quality.

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Alex Turnbull at Charles de Gaulle airport contributed to this report.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games