Embed from Getty Images
I was today years old when I learned there was a restaurant chain named for a beloved dog that specializes in chicken fingers. Yes, I’m talking about Raising Cane’s; no, I don’t live under a rock (at least I didn’t think so!). Where has this joint been all my life? I love dogs! I love chicken fingers! But I digress… Champion swimmer Katie Ledecky — who became the most decorated American female athlete at the 2024 Paris games — was invited by Raising Cane’s to give a keynote address at their employee appreciation event in Cancun last week. While there, Ledecky shared what she gets asked the most since the Olympics is: did you try the double chocolate muffin? As you may recall, Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen whetted the world’s appetite this summer with his artful, funny TikTok videos devoted to the double chocolate muffins. While Christiansen was a fan, it seems Ledecky was not, but just on the grounds that it was basically dessert for breakfast:
Katie Ledecky’s sweet tooth was no match for the food at the 2024 Olympics.
The swimmer, 27, revealed that she tried the “infamous” chocolate muffins during her stay in Paris for the Games this summer while attending a Raising Cane’s employee appreciation in Cancún, Mexico, on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
After giving a keynote presentation, and before heading into a Q&A with the food establishment’s owner and founder Todd Graves and co-CEO AJ Kumaran, Ledecky said one question she is asked all the time is tied to the sweet treat.
“One question I’ve been getting a lot is, ‘Did you try the chocolate muffins in the Olympic Village, the infamous chocolate muffins?’ Yes, I did,” the athlete said.
“I tried it after I was done competing for breakfast,” she continued, adding: “I had about two bites because it was straight up chocolate cake, and I can’t do that for breakfast.”
Earlier this summer, during the Games in Paris, double chocolate muffins that were being served in the Olympic Village went viral on TikTok.
At the time, PEOPLE reached out to Sodexo Live! — the company responsible for feeding the 15,000 athletes living in the Village — to learn more about the treats. It was discovered that the goodies, made popular by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, were 130g “Maxi” muffins “presented in a tulip cup.”
“It is filled and topped with dark chocolate, featuring chunks of dark chocolate and milk chocolate. This muffin is served daily at the main athletes’ restaurant and at the six takeaway food areas within the Village,” a representative for the company explained.
“This dessert is very popular, as around 2,000 chocolate muffins [are] consumed each day at the Athletes’ Village. In total, Sodexo Live! Plans to serve 100,000 muffins throughout the Athletes’ Village during [the] Olympic and Paralympic Games,” they added at the time, without revealing the tasty recipe.
“I had about two bites because it was straight up chocolate cake, and I can’t do that for breakfast.” Well have you tried, Katie?! Come on, I know you have the discipline to build up the stamina! So even if you start with two bites one morning, by the end of the year you can be downing the whole muff, easy! And speaking of, there’s a crucial follow up question that was not asked of Ledecky (at least not in People Mag’s reporting). She says she ate two bites and couldn’t have any more… for breakfast. Come clean, Katie: what happened to the rest of the muffin? I hope it was saved for later or given to someone else to enjoy!!
Here’s what I’ve learned today: you can be the newly-anointed most-decorated American female Olympian and still get a barrage of questions about a chocolate muffin; I need to find a Raising Cane’s and try their chicken fingers; I need to find a job at Raising Cane’s or somewhere else that will appreciate me all the way to Cancun. The last place anyone from my office was sent to was a Wegmans to procure a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting to get us through an afternoon slump. As a species, we might be addicted to chocolate.
Photos credit: IMAGO/Eurasia Sport Images / Avalon, Getty and via Instagram
