VABALOG

Olümpiamängud – sportlaste kirg ja rajatiste saatus

Home to more than 10,000 athletes at the Summer Games and 2,700 at the Winter, the Olympic Village is one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. To join, prospective members need only have spectacular talent and — we long assumed — a chaste devotion to the most intense competition of their lives. But the image of a celibate Games began to flicker in ’92 when it was reported that the Games’ organizers had ordered in prophylactics like pizza. Then, at the 2000 Sydney Games, 70,000 condoms wasn’t enough, prompting a second order of 20,000 and a new standing order of 100,000 condoms per Olympics.

Many Olympians, past and present, abide by what Summer Sanders, a swimmer who won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze in Barcelona, calls the second Olympic motto: “What happens in the village stays in the village.” Yet if you ask enough active and retired athletes often enough to spill their secrets, the village gates will fly open. It quickly becomes clear that, summer or winter, the games go on long after the medal ceremony. “There’s a lot of sex going on,” says women’s soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo, a gold medalist in 2008. How much sex? “I’d say it’s 70 percent to 75 percent of Olympians,” offers world-record-holding swimmer Ryan Lochte, who will be in London for his third Games. “Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Sam Alipour kergitab artiklis Will you still medal in the morning? olümpiaküla elu salapära varjutavat vaikuseloori, mille tagant säravad elujõulised sportlased, kelle energia ja hormoonide kompott koos olümpiaärevusega otsib väljundit, eriti kui võistlusteks ettevalmistumine on tähendanud ka seksist hoidumist. Artikkel annab kaasahaaravalt lõbusa ettekujutuse sportlaste…eee…vabaaja sisustamisest, mis näib kohati lausa orgia mõõtmeid võtvat. Nii mõnedki medalisoosikud aga isegi mitte ei varja enda kavatsusi:

“My last Olympics, I had a girlfriend — big mistake,” Lochte says. “Now I’m single, so London should be really good. I’m excited.” So is American runner LaShawn Merritt, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 400 meters. “An Olympics to remember has to have those stories,” Merritt says. “But I was too locked in in Beijing. This time, when I’m done leaving my legacy on the track,” he says, laughing, “I’ll make sure London remembers me.”

Ja kui juba olümpiateemalistele artiklitele viitamiseks läks, siis Elena Becatoros on kokku pannud huvitav fotoessee kaheksa aasta taguste olümpiamängude jaoks Ateenas ehitatud spordirajatistest, millest paljud on jäänud saatus ja kohaliku fauna hooleks:

There’s still one group that loves the training pool for athletes at the former Olympic village in Athens’ northern fringe.

Frogs.

They appear to delight in sitting on debris that floats on the half-filled pool’s murky waters.

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