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Nutrition & the Olympic Games Village
There are special challenges for the suppliers of food for the athletes at the Olympic Village. Not only do they need to feed the thousands of athletes, there are nearly as many coaches, officials and volunteers. These people will be from over 200 countries, each with their peculiar cultures and food needs. Each athlete wishes to get the best food to help them specifically reach their goals at the Games. The food hall must cater for all of this and more.
The danger for athletes that all of this wonderful world foods will be a temptation for them to vary from their routines. The selection of food would be mind boggling, especially to athletes with limited food choices back home. It is a great opportunity for them to experience food from other cultures, but they need to wait until after their events.
The food at the Olympic Village is always of good quality. It is when the athletes stray from the village that they have to be careful about the quality of the food and the drinkability of the water. This is particularly important in countries like China where food hygiene standards may not be as high as in the US or other countries.
Here are some notes about the Olympic Village food provision from the last few Olympic Games.
2008 Beijing, China
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will again have to cater for a large variety of diets. The food available at the Athletes Village will include almost every food imaginable. Of course there will be Chinese food available, but also dishes from many other countries. For more information, see Diets of the modern Olympic Athlete.
2004 Athens, Greece
The 2004 Olympic Games food operations was run by a U.S.-based company Aramark (who also provided the food in Atlanta), in partnership with the Greek company Dasko. The meals were served at the 6,000-seat main Olympic dining hall. The meals had an international flavor as required to cater for the large range of nationalities present, as well as highlighting Greek dishes such as halva, baklava, and spanakopita.
Prior to the games, they planed to use nearly 3,000 gallons (11,000 liters) of olive oil, fifty-two thousand pounds (24,000 kilograms) of cheese, including feta, kasseri, and houlimi, with Greek farmers providing most of the vegetables, meats, and fruits consumed at the Village.
2000 Sydney, Australia
The Olympic Village menu was analyzed by sports dietitians, and a database set up that enabled searching for specific menu items or to view all foods available on a particular day. Searching could also be done for all dishes excluding a certain ingredient (such as meat) or for specific dietary and religious requirements (e.g. halal). The athlete could also search for dishes based on their macronutrient composition (e.g. high carbohydrate, low fat). They also developed a menu labeling system for use in the dining hall, which listed the macronutrient content of each menu item using a series of symbols. If all this was too much, there was a sports dietitian on hand to answer any question.
1996 Atlanta, USA
The food service contractor for the Atlanta Olympics was ARAMARK Corporation. They developed 550 ethnically diverse recipes for the menu. A nutritional analysis of each recipe was provided in the three languages of the Olympics (French and English as the official Olympic languages, plus Spanish). Pictograms were also used at each food station to help athletes easily identify the foods that were being served.
In addition to the great selection of food available for the athletes in the Olympic Village, there was also a McDonald store, providing free Maccas to any athlete. That must have been a challenge for some athletes to avoid. There was some healthier food eaten too. There was an official dining hall - a 75,000 square-foot tent with a 3,500 seat capacity. Below is the list of the actual quantities of food and water served over 33 days.
For athletes who could not eat in the Dining Hall, special Olympic Lunch Boxes were provided, were transported to competition sites in refrigerated trucks. Approximately 50,000 box lunches were prepared.
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Related Pages
- Nutrition at the Olympics
- about the Olympic Games
