Are the viral Olympics chocolate muffins worth the hype? Team USA dishes the apparent scrumptious dirt

Henrik Christiansen's unexpected Paris Olympics TikTok chronicles have dubbed him the ‘Muffin Man,’ but does Team USA concur with his love for the baked good?

Despite the French twist to this year's Olympic Games, the most eye-grabbing and table-turning baked delight at the 2024 edition of the international sports event is a now-viral double chocolate muffin, which is especially doing numbers on TikTok.

Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen has earned the self-proclaimed identity as the "Olympic Muffin Man" by professing his love for the gooey, decadent dessert served at the 2024 Paris Olympics Athletes' Village on his viral TikTok series. (TikTok)

The irresistible treat has kept 15,000 athletes living at the Paris 2024 Village fed, but they particularly became a matter of public frenzy after Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen became the unofficial "Olympic Muffin Man" on social media. Posing with the unexpected delight while fuelling himself with thousands of savoury calories, the 27-year-old stumbled upon one of his favourite go-to choices at the Games while vlogging his meal reviews for food served at the Olympic Village. After finding them "just so incredibly delicious, Christiansen churned out an entire series, professing love for the chocolatey treat.

Sodexo Live, the French food-service company curating meals for the 2024 Games, serves over 2,000 decadent lava-centred “incredibly moist” muffins with chocolate chunks at the Olympic Village daily. Christiansen's superhit food series has also done its bit in breaking a major misconception about athletes' well-rounded diet that includes vegetables, fruits, proteins and carbohydrates, in addition to some other rotating options of comfort food.

“There is a lot of misconception regarding athletes and what they eat — of course, some athletes, they do sports where their weight is carefully watched and it’s a lot more important,” the Olympic Muffin Man said in an interview. “On my most heavy training days, I can get up to almost 7,000 calories a day.”

"It’s tough to have that many calories if you’re only having salad,” he added.

But are these gooey delights as finger-licking good as Christiansen has made them out to be in his TikTok series? Team USA Olympians have finally broken their silence.

Team USA weighs in on the viral Olympic Village chocolate muffins

In an exclusive report, People revealed that American swimming sensation Ryan Held credited the Olympic muffins gaining their “astronomical popularity” to Christiansen having “blown them out of proportion.”

While Held wasn't as impressed by the beloved chocolatey wonder, his teammate Erin Gemmell spoke rather highly of the treat. “I had one. It was pretty good, I will say. So whatever they have in the middle could, like, change lives.”

“I think if you gave it to like a medieval peasant, I think they might like, explode. But it's definitely a great, like, once you're done racing, little treat.”

Similarly, some members of the American rowing team also jumped on the bandwagon. Justin Best teased his teammate Liam Corrigan as another “hype man” for the muffins.

Meanwhile, Corrigan said: “So my experience the first day was I saw the muffins. It was breakfast, I was like, 'Oh, a muffin. It's not the healthiest but it's not so bad. And then I opened it up and it's more of a molten lava cake-slash-muffin. And at that point I felt a little bad, like, 'I probably shouldn't be eating this before the race.' So stayed off the muffins.”

However, they obviously couldn't keep their hands off the baked goods, as they later returned to claim their “celebratory muffins” after winning gold.

On the contrary, American fencer Maia Weintraub claimed to have shown no interest in the muffins as she isn't necessarily fond of chocolate. Jackie Dubrovich also seemed to have caught on with the TikTok sensation.

Though she admitted that the baked good has become a “big thing” on social media, her personal thoughts don't exactly align with the rest. “I think it's a good muffin. I'm not like mind blown like...it's fine,” she said.

Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, and Asher Hong, members of the US men's gymnastics team, also expressed their sweet tooth validation for the “so gooey” goods.

Christiansen and several other sports stars eventually also kicked off a hilarious food Olympics, labelling each other as “traitors” for cheating on their favourite desserts with their rival's picks.

Team Norway's 21-year-old Jon Joentvedt caught Christiansen on camera eating his favourite cookie at the Village, which he declared was “Waaaay better” than the muffins, and wrote online, “I guess the Olympic Muffin Man is a traitor after all.”

The Norwegian swimmer, in turn, posted a TikTok of Joentvedt snacking on a chocolate muffin. “My mortal enemy the Cookie Man caught lacking with a muffin. If he decides to expose me, then I will expose him as well,” Christiansen wrote in the caption.