<p class="ingestion featured-caption">Athletes relaxed at the first Olympic Village.Topical Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The first Olympic Village was built in Paris in 1924 to "foster cordiality" among athletes.</li><li>Competitors slept in wooden huts and were offered wine with lunch and dinner.</li></ul><p>Ahead of Friday's opening ceremony at the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paris-summer-olympics-2024">Paris Olympics'</a>, athletes are settling into their accommodations at the Olympic Village.</p><p>The village in Seine-Saint-Denis is the size of 70 soccer fields and offers amenities, including a sprawling food court with various cuisines, an expansive gym, and a medical center, <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-athletes-village-preparations-e4049421ab8ab87a83cc67c91c9c036a">The Associated Press</a> reported. It's even home to a boulangerie, or a French bakery, that's providing baking classes to Olympians looking for a way to relax, <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/dining/olympic-village-paris-2024-food.html">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>By these standards, the accommodations offered at the last Paris Olympics — held a century ago — were rudimentary. Yet they were still pioneering: The <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paris-olympics-in-1924-vintage-photos-then-and-now-2024-7">1924 Olympics </a>was home to the first-ever Olympic Village, inspired by organizers' desire to simplify the Games' logistics and bring athletes from many nations together in one place.</p><p>Many of the <a target="_blank" class href="https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-1924-the-olympic-games-come-of-age">3,089 athletes competing across 17 sports</a> that year stayed in the Olympic Village, which offered three meals a day, running water, and proximity to their events.</p><p>Here's what it was like to stay there.</p>