Covid fears inside the Athletes’ Village, Olympic officials tight-lipped after revoking Russian reporters’ accreditations and why the Italians are not a happy bunch: MIKE KEEGAN’s FRENCH CONNECTIONS

Organisers continue to claim Covid rates are ‘quite low in France’.

However, that is at odds with the word from inside the Athletes’ Village.

Some athletes believe that the issue is becoming a problem.

Swimmer Adam Peaty is Team GB’s highest-profile case so far.

Peaty tested positive for Covid just hours after he missed out on 100 metres breaststroke gold by 0.02sec.

Olympic and Paris officials remain tight-lipped on the reasons for revoking the accreditations of four Russian reporters.

They were permitted to enter the country, cover the opening ceremony and attend several events before having their passes taken away.

The Italians are not a happy bunch. The country’s fencing federation have lodged a formal complaint after Filippo Macchi was ‘denied gold’ in the men’s individual foil, losing 15-14 to Hong Kong’s Edgar Cheung.

At the heart of the beef appears to be proximity, given the referee was from Chinese Taipei and the video replay was overseen by a South Korean.

Meanwhile, an Italian TV commentator has declared on air that the coffee in the press room tastes so bad it may have been made with ‘water from the Seine’.

The media hospitality is a running joke now, with those covering Tom Pidcock’s mountain-bike heroics given a choice of apples or apples.

Filippo Macchi (left) and the Italian Fencing Federation were not satisfied with their silver

IOC president Thomas Bach met Palestinian bosses this week amid calls for the Israeli team to be kicked out. ‘Depending on who you listen to, there are 20 to 30 wars in the world at the moment,’ said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams.

‘If we listened to the complaints of all the teams, no-one would be here. Politicians can bring peace — our job is to try to unite sportsmen and women.’

The abuse keeps coming for those involved in Friday’s opening ceremony, in particular those in one scene which some felt was a provocative take on the Last Supper.

‘The inspiration was mythological,’ said Paris comms boss Anne Descamps, repeating comments from technical director Thomas Jolly.

‘It depicted a pagan feast featuring the God of Olympus. Any offence was not intentional… we hope this puts an end to misinterpretations.’