What Really Goes On Backstage At The Olympics – According To The Athletes Themselves
Most people can only imagine the focus required to make it as an Olympic athlete. To step up and represent your nation at the Games takes a lot of work, and the pressure of performing on the day must be so intense. You might presume, then, that behind the scenes, the atmosphere is really edgy and serious for competitors. Well, that’s not necessarily the case...
40. Campus life
Throughout the Games, athletes live in the Olympic Village, which is generally closed off to outsiders. This obviously creates a specific sort of atmosphere, which one athlete has likened to a college campus. Tony Azevedo has represented America in water polo at five different Olympic Games, so he knows all about the ambience of the event. He told ESPN in 2012, “It’s like the first day of college... You’re nervous, super-excited.”
39. Couch potatoes
One of the perks of being an Olympic athlete is that you get a free pass to other events besides your own. Except, competitors are often so exhausted that they just watch them on TV like the rest of us. Marti Malloy, who took home bronze in judo at the 2012 Games, told website Mental Floss, “I remember sitting in a common room watching something on television... My teammate turned to me and said, ‘I guess we could have just gone to this.’”
38. Keeping couples apart
The sleeping arrangements in the Olympic Village are sort of like a hostel, with athletes bunking in the same rooms. Unless, of course, they’re part of a couple. British cyclists Laura Trott and Jason Kenny were in a relationship when they were competing at the Rio Games in 2016. As Trott explained to Cosmopolitan magazine, “We’re in different apartments, but they’re opposite each other, so I just keep going in there!”
37. Territorial athletes
The Olympic Village is made up of high-rise buildings which contain the athletes’ apartments. These blocks all generally look the same as each other, except the competitors have a tradition of decorating their own places with their nation’s flag. As Trott explained to Cosmopolitan, the British building at Rio was adorned with “lions and flags all over the place.”
