Even if you're not a huge fan of the Olympics, you probably know that the athletes stay at
the Olympic Village -- a campus created specifically for the Games.
But what happens in the athletes' new home away from home?
Here's what really goes on at the Olympic village.
It wouldn't be a 2021 event without COVID-19, unfortunately, so let's start there.
What happened at the Olympic Village in Tokyo, before the Games even started, is the spread
of the coronavirus.
As noted by Reuters, the "isolation bubble system" that organizers of the Games were
counting on to protect the athletes staying at the Olympic Village was quickly compromised.
Given that it takes a negative COVID-19 test to even take part in the athlete's designated
Olympic event, the spreading of the coronavirus was definitely not good news to the competitors.
Organizers announced that before the games began, dozens of cases of the coronavirus
had been confirmed.
Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, maintained that the testing and
isolation measures in place created a "zero" risk environment for athletes staying at the
Olympic Village, but clearly that is not the case.
The term "Olympic Village" seems to scream a certain level of luxury, right?
Well, the reality seems to be different.
According to ESPN, the Olympic Village in Tokyo made quite the splash in the news because
of the cardboard beds and polyethylene mattresses that were featured in the rooms.
What influenced such a decision?
Sustainability.
The Olympic committee committed to recycling the paper product-based beds after the Games
conclude, which is definitely a great initiative, but an interesting choice for the housing
of some of the world's greatest athletes.
However, the Olympic Villages of the past might not have been as fancy as you'd expect either.
Olympian Natalie Coughlin told People that one of the biggest misconceptions that audiences
have is that the Olympic Village is luxurious.
"I think they think it's a lot more glamorous than it is.
It's really pretty boring."
Some athletes are known for their intense calorie intake, while others are known for
adhering to strict diets.
Either way, the food demand within the Olympic Village is wild.
As reported by Japan Today, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village prepared to feed 18,000 people.
About 48,000 meals were estimated to be served on a daily basis, and some dining options
have to stay open at all hours of the day given the schedules of the athletes.
There are 700 menu options within the Olympic Village dining hall, 2,000 staff members,
and 3,000 seats in the main cafeteria alone.
The dining options at the Tokyo Games were categorized as Japanese, Western, and Asian,
and will feature "plenty of local flavor."
The Olympic Games are full of exciting and emotional moments.
From the amazing athletic performances to the opening and closing ceremonies, there's
a lot to watch and celebrate… especially for the athletes that medal.
According to Olympians Mallory Weggemann and Alise Willoughby, who dished about the Games
to Delish, the Olympic Village is where much of the Games' post-win celebrations happen.
While alcohol is not served at the Olympic Village dining hall, nor is it sold within
Olympic Village at the Tokyo Games, athletes can still bring some in with them.
Willoughby revealed,
"There are usually plenty of options available for celebrations at the team houses that are
definitely taken advantage of.
When it's a time for a celebratory toast, you go with it!
And in Rio, well ... One caipirinha, two caipirinha, three caipirinha, floor."
There's something about the camaraderie within the Olympic Village that sounds like a fantastic,
adult sleepover.
Athletes are there with their friends, reunited with people they haven't seen in years, in
an international country competing — all of it sounds really exciting.
But the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 were certainly different due to COVID-19, and some athletes
abandoned the Olympic Village before the Games even began.
As noted by the New York Post, members of the United States' women's gymnastics team
decided to forego the Olympic Village altogether, and decided to stay in a local hotel instead.
Coach Cecile Landi posted on Twitter,
"It was also a decision that we all made together, we know it isn't ideal for the Olympic experience
but nothing is ideal during a pandemic.
We feel like we can control the athletes and our safety better in a hotel setting."
According to AP News, the Tokyo Olympic Village opened its doors to athletes on July 13, 2021,
10 days before the Olympics opened.
The actual village itself was made up of 21 residential towers, each offering between
14 and 18 floors of accommodations.
In total, there are 3,600 rooms within the Olympic Village, with a total of 18,000 beds throughout.
Now about the actual rooms themselves.
AP News described them to be more like apartments, as they are about 1,200 square feet in size.
Each unit can sleep approximately eight athletes, with some rooms offering a little bit less
space and as such, fewer beds.
Approximately 11,000 athletes are expected to compete in the Olympic Games, so there
should be room to spread competitors out so they're not all crammed in together.
Due to COVID-19, athletes were asked to arrive as late as possible and leave as soon as they are able to.
Unlike Games of the past where food seemed to be a bit of a free-for-all, the Village
in Tokyo was issued strict guidelines when it comes to preparing and serving food.
"You can eat whatever you want!
As long as it adds up to 12,000 calories per day."
Well, not those guidelines.
While we touched on just how much food is served during the Games, it should be noted
that the meals at the Tokyo Games were instructed to be, quote, "handled only by cooks and servers."
There will be no buffet-style options, plastic barriers will separate athletes while they
dine, and even the soft serve soda handles will be covered in "anti-virus film" in order
to curb the spread of COVID-19.
All of this might sound like a bit much, but according to Our World in Data, only 23% of
people in Japan are fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
When contextualized by the fact that only 13% of the world's total population had been
inoculated by the start of the Games, the precautions make a ton of sense.
During the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the Olympic Village consisted of 31 high-rise
apartment buildings - due to their location in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, the apartments
were extremely visible.
Athletes took to the outer surfaces of the buildings and planted their flags outside
of their designated apartments.
As more and more countries displayed their colors, the Olympic Village turned into a
jigsaw puzzle of country pride.
As noted by The New York Times, it was up to Mario Cilenti, the director of the Rio
Olympic Village, to place athletes within the high-rise buildings.
He did his best to situate countries with large delegations of athletes, and then worked
in smaller countries throughout the remaining space.
Spectators were left with an array of flags draping the Olympic Village, and Tokyo followed suit.
From the amazing events to the wall-to-wall coverage, it really seems as though the Olympic
athletes are observed 24/7 during the Games.
But there are still aspects of the event that viewers at home are not privy to: specifically
the intimate relationships between athletes.
While it's not a topic that concerns the audience, protecting athletes from STIs and unwanted
pregnancies seems to be a priority when the Olympics comes around.
"What happens at the Olympics Village stays in the Olympics village."
According to AP News, 150,000 condoms were said to have been given out to athletes at
the Tokyo Olympic Village for the 2020 Games.
Takashi Kitajima, the Olympic Village general manager, said that handing out protection
was part of an awareness campaign regarding HIV and AIDS.
"The purpose of distributing condoms is not [just] to use in the village, but to ask athletes
to cooperate for the awareness of the issue by bringing the condoms back home to their countries."
According to Olympian Natalie Coughlin, the Olympic Village is pretty much just full of
stressed out athletes.
So many of us see the Olympics as this bright, glittering event that marks every two years
with immense talent, but inside the Olympic Village are thousands of competitors who are
painstakingly prepping for what could be the most important performance of their lifetime.
Coughlin told People,
"[The Olympic Village] is like a giant college campus — except that everyone is getting
ready for the biggest event of their life so they're incredibly stressed.
They're really, really focused and so everyone is 100% on their best behavior up until the
time that they're done competing."
Coughlin even shared that once athletes have wrapped up all their competitions, they typically
leave the Olympic Village for the sake of the athletes who are still competing.
After all, it's no fun watching the people around you party and celebrate when you still
have more competition ahead.
One of the amazing aspects about the Olympic Games is that each year, a different country
is chosen to host.
Each Games looks a little different, and the same can be said for the Olympic Village.
Athletes have dished about the difference between Villages, and all of the options sound
just as exciting as each other, according to People.
For instance, Alexi Pappas shared that during the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, there were,
quote, "free condoms, Dance Dance Revolution and all the limited edition athlete-only golden
Coca-Cola bottles you can get your hands on."
During the South Korea Games in 2018, the Olympic Village featured a number of McDonald's
locations where athletes could purchase some of their favorite fast-food items.
Olympic runner Allyson Felix told People that the common fast-food joint was "one of the
most popular stops" at the Olympic Village, and the line was already incredibly long.
"Sometimes when you're just across the world, you want something that you know exactly what
it's going to taste like."
The Olympic Village is one of the best places for athletes to socialize while competing
at the Games.
As Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin shared with People, of all the locations within the
Village, the cafeteria is by far the best place to be.
Of course, the dining tables are great for chatting with fellow competitors, but Coughlin
shared that the dining hall also provides amazing people-watching opportunities.
It also provided her the chance to play one of her favorite pastimes: trying to guess
what sport someone at the Village competes in just based on their appearance and body type.
Comparing the dining hall to the size of a Costco, Coughlin said that the location within
the Village is by far where the action is.
Of course, it also gives athletes a chance to run into some of sporting's biggest stars.
Coughlin recalled that while competing in the 2012 Games in London, the entire room
broke into applause when Usain Bolt entered the Village.
We've talked about just about everything that goes on in Olympic Villages.
But what happens when the Games end?
Well according to AP News, the apartment blocks built for the Tokyo Games will be sold to
occupants once the Games are over.
Hopefully that plan will come to fruition, but we'd be remiss not to mention the amount
of Olympic Villages and Olympic arenas that have been abandoned after the Games come and
go from a city.
As reported by ABC News, a slew of Olympic Villages have been left in various levels
of decay for quite some time.
For instance, the Olympic Village in Athens, Greece from the 2004 Games was used as a "worker
housing project," but now most of the buildings are "abandoned or rarely used."
The buildings used to house athletes during the 1936 Games in Berlin are completely decayed
or deserted, and the Olympic Village used in the 2006 Games in Turin is abandoned too.
Fingers crossed the Olympic Village in Tokyo is put to good use.
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