Bronze medalist in rugby 7s, the American benefits, like others, from the medical center in the Olympic village, which allows athletes to benefit from free health care.
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“I literally just got a pap smear for free.” Ariana Ramsey is jubilant as she films herself on the social network TikTok. The American rugby 7 player, bronze medalist, has just taken advantage, on Saturday August 3, of the health center of the Olympic village, intended for athletes. “Not only do we have free food in the Olympic Village, but we have free dental care, free health care.”she assures.
The athlete went to the dentist on Sunday, as she showed, again on TikTok, and scheduled an eye exam. She came out convinced to fight again: “free medical care in the United States.” Across the Atlantic, around 26 million people remain without health coverage and each inhabitant spends more than $12,500 per year on health expenses, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
She is not the only one among the 10,500 athletes living in the Olympic Village to benefit from it. “All treatments are free at the Olympics, so I made an appointment for a massage”assured Saturday, on the Chinese social network, the Liberian sprinter Ebony Morrison. The specialist of the 110m hurdles took the opportunity to undergo a complete health check, then to go successively to a chiropractor, then to an orthopedist.
Funded by the Olympic Games organizing committee, but co-managed by the Assistance publique hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), the polyclinic is installed on 3,500 square meters of a school of physiotherapy, osteopathy and podiatry. No operating theater, nor full hospitalization beds, but a “multidisciplinary health center” intended to provide first aid to athletes and members of the team during the events “Olympic family”.
The organization wanted “to offer the best service as close as possible, to allow them to live their dream”explained to AFP Dr. Philippe Le Van, head physician of Paris 2024. This polyclinic can receive up to nearly 700 patients per day, according to a press release from the National Federation of Health Centers.