The secret of the modern Olympics is that the athlete village, with its tightly packed collection of firm young bodies, 24-hour sports television and all-you-can eat international cuisine, has become the most exclusive VIP club in the world. It�s “a two-week-long private party for thousands of hard-bodies,” says Nelson Diebel, an American swimmer who won gold twice in Barcelona. Like a mirage, the village appears in the middle of an exuberant host city for two weeks every two years. Open only to competitors, coaches and trainers, it�s a wonderland of hormones, glycogen and dance mixes.
The free dining hall is open 24/7. Vending machines dispense free soft drinks. Pool halls, cinemas, bowling alleys and discos stay open – and jumping – throughout the night. “It�s like adult Disney World for two weeks,” says Christo Doyle, a television executive who was the assistant venue logistics manager for Atlanta�s village in 1996. “In Atlanta there were private concerts with big music stars, a free video arcade and all these ripped athletes riding around on free mountain bikes that BMW had given them.”
The latest attraction is free internet service, which Marco Buechel, an alpine ski racer who competes for Liechtenstein, put to good use in Salt Lake City. “You can contact any athlete, even if you don�t know them at all,” says Buechel. “They give you a list when you get there. Everybody uses it. I saw this beautiful ski racer, from Greece of all places. She had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. I saw her at the village and sent her an e-mail, in English. Her reply was very short: �Not good English. Want meet you.�”
According to Buechel, he and the Greek beauty made arrangements to meet soon after. “We tried to talk, which wasn�t very successful,” says Buechel, “and then we started to drink, which was much more successful.” And? “It was very beautiful,” he says. “A beautiful international incident.”
An invisible two-caste system of Olympic athletes feeds the randy village dynamic. “The reason there is so much distraction in the village is because there are two kinds of athletes there,” says Maurice Greene, the American sprinter who took two golds in Sydney. “You have Olympians and Olympic tourists. The Olympians are there to win. But, let�s face it, there are other athletes who know they have no chance; they�re just there for the experience.”
The athletic tourists – from more than 200 countries – are in the vast majority. “Athletes who are knocked out early have basically a two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation with nothing to do,” says American shot-putter John Godina, a silver medallist in Atlanta. “And that�s when things happen.”
At the Albertville winter Olympics, condom machines in the athletes� village had to be refilled every two hours. And in Sydney the organisers� original order of 70,000 condoms went so fast that they had to order 20,000 more. Even with the replenishment, the supply was exhausted three days before the end of the competition schedule. (For the record, athletes who were in Sydney report that the Cuban delegation was the first to use up its allocation.) Salt Lake City in 2002 went even bigger: 250,000 condoms were handed out, despite the objections of the city�s Mormon leadership.
An informal poll of summer Olympians puts swimmers and gymnasts at the top of the best-proportioned-body list. Cathy Rigby, a gymnast who took part in the Games of Mexico City and Munich, once told a reporter that gymnasts� bodies are so aesthetically pleasing they should be forced to perform naked.
“It�s really a question of �which flavour do you like?�,” says swimmer Diebel. “If you like six-packs, see the gymnasts. Like butts? Go to track and field. The only thing you�re deprived of is fat. If you�re the rare athlete who likes sedentary bodies, you�re shit out of luck.”
The idea that sex can hinder performance is hardly a new one. Researchers have long suggested that abstaining before competition enhances performance. Prior to the Barcelona Games, however, doctors at a Jerusalem sex clinic advised women on the Israeli team to have sex before their events. “Women compete better after orgasm, especially high-jumpers and runners,” one of the doctors claimed. The German team physician endorses sex for male and female athletes, saying: “Sex does not cause any loss of strength.”
He may be right. This year, a Russian psychologist told a German newspaper that neither gender should abstain. “It�s simple,” she said. “More sex means more gold.”
(Adapted and edited from Scotsman.com)