LONG READ 'The gene pool is remarkably strong for anyone interested in making future athletes' Inside the Olympic village

The Olympic village is a commune behind strict security, accessible only with the most sought-after accreditation in world sport. 

But what goes on on the other side of those security gates? Is the village a collection of elite people meticulously preparing for high performance or a tinderbox of pent-up ego, energy and excitement waiting to explode? 

In truth, it’s both.

Everyone knows the ancient Greek roots of the games. These were rekindled in a little-known and quaint market town in the English Midlands called Much Wenlock. 

In 1850, a doctor called William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock Olympian Society. The aim was to, ‘promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town’. 

The Olympic village serves a similar function … most of the time.

Before and after competition

After Team GB’s men’s rugby sevens team won silver in Rio, a ‘lucky’ few of us were dragged out of our beds at 7am with just a few hours’ sleep to do television interviews.

We weaved and stumbled our way to Sky, ITV, BBC studios in the city. As we breathed out fumes that would have ignited near a naked flame, we passed runners clocking-up their pre-race kilometres. 

We giggled our way past boxers sweating out to make weight, while our own perspiration could have gone straight back in the bottle. One bleary-eyed morning meander summed up pre- and the post-Olympic experience in the village.

In Tokyo, we had nowhere else to go because of the pandemic. The athletes’ village was our entire city that year. We smuggled in some bottles of alcohol thanks to surprisingly obliging security, and we sipped on our sorrows in the communal gardens after our fourth-place finish. 

Meanwhile, the Fijian team had gathered around the cava bowl, wearing their gold medals, while the women’s teams were sleeping, gearing up for their tournament the next day. 

Quite a juxtaposition. But it is commonplace as the Games unfold: some lie in their beds dreaming of glory, while others do not sleep at all…

Typical of athletes on either side of their sports’ medal ceremonies, however, is the desire to max out the experience. There is a collective awareness that this is a special place and a special time for all involved. 

In the athletes’ village everyone wakes wide eyed – and as they sit to have breakfast with thousands of fellow competitors, there is a healthy portion of expectation and the juice being squeezed to the maximum. 

The atmosphere is rich with anticipation: of memories yet to be made, and a yearning to savour this chapter of life.

Mixing with famous faces

Then there are the ‘celebrity’ athletes. I will never forget the scene in Rio. A gaggle of athletes, all stars in their own right, scuttling along, jostling for selfie position in pursuit of one of the greatest of all time. 

Usain Bolt was followed everywhere he went in the Olympic village. The crowd in his wake was rarely smaller than 20-strong, which must have made life difficult for him to go about his day. 

As a result, he stayed outside the village for most of the Games. I can’t help but feel, however, that was his loss. In my mind the Olympic village is one of the strangest, most vibrant, intriguing insights into humanity you could wish to see.

I resisted joining the Bolt fan train. ‘Play it cool’, my mind told me. It is hard to adhere to this advice surrounded by global superstars of sport – and I got my chance to rub shoulders with some greats. 

I chatted to Andy Murray in the laundry queue – they had lost his kit as well. 

I bumped into Mo Farah, while waiting to get yet another cup of chocolate milk in the food hall (the food was pretty average in Rio, but they must have laced the chocolate milk with something addictive because I drank gallons of it). And I squeezed into a lift alongside Mark Cavendish and his bike; while we got to watch Novak Djokovic casually knocking up outside our apartment building. 

Before all this, we had been living alongside Dina Asher-Smith, Adam Gemili and the track team in the prep camp. 

The beautiful thing is the parity in the village. Occasional big names, like Bolt, stay elsewhere. NBA stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and co stayed in a luxury yacht in the bay in Rio de Janeiro. But, most will have stayed in the village. It’s a great equaliser.

Bed side stories

The most widely reported element of the accommodation is the beds. If they could talk! 

In Tokyo, this discussion took up a lot of village air time. The cardboard beds were strictly for reasons of sustainability – but speculation around their contraceptive function lead to plenty of conversation in the dinner hall. Did the discomfort of the design lead to fewer babies being made? The jury’s out. 

The gene pool is remarkably strong for anyone interested in making future athletes. It should be said, however, that this is perhaps not the main motivation of most intimate unions in the village. 

To recognise this, Laurent Michaud, Olympic village director at Paris, has provided 300,000 free condoms. In Rio, athletes could stock up from dispensers on they way out of the food hall. With the Olympic cocktail of hormones flooding the village it’s no surprise there is, allegedly, a lot of action on and off the arenas.

I have been a little tongue-in-cheek about the gene pool. 

But there is honestly no better collection of human bodies. Minute pocket rocket gymnasts stand two whole feet below basketballers. Discus throwers with giant bodies bond with featherweight boxers. Hulk-like weightlifters live alongside lightweight marathon runners. 

A window into the spectrum of humanity

In a veritable safari of the human species, almost all shapes and sizes are represented. As a rugby team we had a bit of everything and sat somewhere in the middle but the beauty of the Olympic village is that all specimens are celebrated for the function that their body serves in their chosen sport.

Factor into this the diverse mix of national and cultural influence and the fascination grows. A window into the spectrum of humanity, the village is a unique environment. All the while, you are living a supercharged sleepover with your mates during the most intense period of your life.

I am in no doubt this iteration of the Games will host its fair share of stories – about 50 percent of these coming out of the village will be confined to the grapevine and gossip. 

But the athletes are all about to step into an electric atmosphere, energy and excitement pulsating through the air. Amid this collection of elite people there will be pin-badge swaps a plenty and new friendships (and more!) made.

There really is no place like it.