PARIS — The Olympic medal table resembles the Premier League, with half a dozen teams competing for a Champions League spot. Except for superpowers the United States and China, the margins are narrow.

There’s no transfer window, so how can you make a difference? Welcome to GB Lodge, a unique space for Britain’s athletes – a high-tech performance centre with sofas, curtains and all the comforts of home.

The Lycée René Auffray, a cooking school in Clichy on the western edge of Paris, has been transformed into a centre of excellence for the Games period. It is separate and distinct from the Athletes’ Village with its chaos and noise, and GB House, which acts as a commercial zone for Team GB.

Performance is the defining principle. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art gym, swimming pool, and indoor sports facilities such as table tennis and badminton. It includes quiet zones, a crèche to make things easier for parents who compete with the likes of Adam Peaty, Helen Glover and Tom Daley, and sleep pods for restorative naps ranging from 20 minutes to an hour, the recommended daily dose of sleep for peak performance. Think first class on a long-haul flight, a space-age bed in a white cylinder.

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“Travelling, competing in different time zones and experiencing unfamiliar sleep conditions can all impact the amount of sleep athletes can get at the Olympic Games. Our aim is always to develop an environment that allows our athletes to perform at their best,” says Greg Retter, head of performance services at Team GB.

The most popular feature is the dining hall, which is set up to cater for up to 250 people a day. Often more in the early stages of the Games when demand is higher. As a catering college, the kitchen facilities are geared to high volumes. Meals are prepared by a team of local staff under the supervision of a British chef, a task shared by two people on what will be a 34-day rotation.

The chef was already on duty before the Olympic Village food row erupted and has not responded. “The difference is there are 10,000 athletes in the village, that’s a lot of people to serve. At the club our athletes can order the food they want and have it prepared to their liking,” said Team GB communications chief Scott Field.

The food is supplied by Aldi, one of Team GB’s major trading partners. The 53,000 items sent included 700 jars of peanut butter, 1,000 bags of dried mango, 1,000 boxes of muesli, 200 boxes of cereal and 22,000 cereal bars for on-the-go snacks. For competitive athletes, eating is also an Olympic sport, with many of them shovelling 5,000 calories a day.

There’s also a barista on site to keep your coffee of choice flowing. It all adds to the warm atmosphere and sense of belonging. 800m gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson retreated to this lodge after just one meal in the village. And Team GB are housed on a small island within the village boundaries with their own little dining hall. But even that doesn’t compare to the lodge.

“He had one meal there,” assistant coach Trevor Painter said. “It was a lack of vegetables. No matter how many athletes there are here, it’s very difficult to provide food for them and keep the food as good as it can be.” Assistant coach Jenny Meadows added: “It’s only 15 minutes from the village. He drives across because the food is so much better.”

The idea for the lodge came after London and was first implemented in Rio. Andy Murray said the facility was a key factor in retaining his tennis gold. He was ever-present in Paris, having lunch with Chris Hoy the day after the pair split, the two iconic British athletes spreading golden vibes throughout the facility.

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For athletes like this, the village is useless. It is as much a focal point for selfie-hunters and pin-swappers among visiting athletes as it is on the Champs-Élysées. Field recalled a visit to the village in Rio in 2016. “Novak Djokovic was playing shots with Boris Becker. There must have been a thousand people watching. It was chaos.”

Peaty says the facilities at Field Paris are great and have received positive feedback from most athletes, at least in terms of accommodation, despite some team-mates claiming to have found worms in their food in the village and others joining in the criticism. The problem is the use of the facilities. “In the village you have to book to use them. We have our own facilities at the lodge so it’s much easier for athletes to prepare,” he said.

Serge, or Scourge Betsen, who has long been a thorn in the side of the England team at the Stade de France and Twickenham, has now softened enough to share his approval of GB House on social media after a visit to see how it all works. The success of the project is spreading and other teams are expected to emulate the concept in future matches.

Team GB have already booked Stanford University, just south of San Francisco, for their 2028 pre-match training camp. Locating the next kennel in Los Angeles is among the most anticipated. Given that the Olympic Stadium is located south and west of the city, neighborhoods along the western axis from West Hollywood through Beverly Hills to the beach community of Santa Monica will be in high demand.

Team GB directs a large portion of its £80m per Olympic cycle into performance optimisation. Paris didn’t come cheap. That’s the price of putting medals on the table. Team GB are on track for a projected 17 golds and 63 medals in total.