All Articles, Exercise & Fitness, Featured

Reflections of Olympic Village

Print This Post

February 26, 2010
	Dr. Tim McCrossen : Head Fitness Ego

The winter games are coming to a close and I feel they have been pretty spectacular, and I’m not speaking of our team USA medal count. As the winter games go on I wanted to give some insight as to what goes on behind the scenes at the Athlete and Olympic Village when athletes aren’t competing. 

The housing is usually little chalets or cottages lined up by country. The rooms are set up in a dorm room type of setting, nothing fancy here and athletes are roomed with teammates from their own sport.  Each day you have a meeting with your team manager who tells everyone where they have to be on that day.

Each athlete, if they are not competing that day is assigned or volunteers to do different appearances at corporate sponsor events to meet sponsors or fans.  In the Olympic Village there is what they call “Radio Row” where radio stations from across the country are lined up and broadcasting from the Games. Each team is supposed to send athletes down there at different times of the day for interviews.

The team manager also lets the team know what tickets he has available to give away for Olympic events if time schedules allow the athletes to go.

Back at the Athlete Village there is a huge food court for all athletes to feast. This is a great place to meet athletes from other countries. Unfortunately the McDonald’s line is ALWAYS the longest…and have you seen their commercials during the games….”Eat like an Olympian..Eat McDonalds!” I guess McDonald’s isn’t too far off with that slogan. 

Even the Jamaican Sprinter Phenom Usain Bolt states that he ate Chicken McNuggets just prior to setting his famous 100 meter world record in Beijing! Rumor is he is trying to clean up his diet for this upcoming season.  

Another way that athletes, as well as visitors, get to meet one another is through Olympic pin trading. This is a huge Olympic tradition. There are hundreds of different pins made for each Olympics and people trade them with each other. The US athletes are given team pins for their respective sport and these are the Gold Standard when it comes to getting pins. Athletes from the United States can trade these with the other sports on the US team. 

There is a common area for US athletes in the Athlete Village where there are televisions so you can watch some of the different event while they are going on. Doing this was one of my most memorable “patriotic” moments I’ve ever had; rooting on fellow US Olympians with other Olympians was really special.

I remember we had a room full of athletes during my games watching Dan Jansen the speedskater win his gold medal and then skate around the oval with his baby in a victory lap. Pretty cool stuff! 

So many memories keep flooding back as I watch these Olympic Games. I look forward to watching the Vancouver closing ceremonies as a spectator, former participant and proud American this weekend.

See Tim share more memories of his own Olympic experience with WLWT’s Ken Broo.