what to do at the olympics village pyeong chang
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The Super Basin is over, the Eagles take flown, the Cavs may be trying to trade LeBron and leap training doesn't get-go till Feb. 23.
But that's OK, because it's time for the nigh magical of sporting events, that unparalleled show of international esprit that is the Olympic Games. The 2018 Winter Olympics are underway in the Southward Korean county of Pyeongchang, where two,952 athletes from all over the world take descended to compete in 102 events over the next two weeks.
And while exponentially more athletes amass during the Summer Games, this promises to be the largest-ever Winter Games, and that's a heck of a ton of men and women pouring into town with their hopes and their dreams, not to mention their gear and their entourages.
A bulk of the sportsmen and women participating will go home without a medal, and many of them will be going dorsum to mean solar day jobs subsequently equally teachers and accountants and other normal occupations, as biathlon lone doesn't usually pay the bills. Simply part of the please of the Olympics is that, for this fortnight, almost all of the athletes—from the brand names to the one-hit wonders—will exist bunking in like circumstances in the sprawling Olympic Villages built for the occasion.
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One time once again this year at that place are 2 Olympic Villages: one in the mountainous Pyeongchang region comprising eight 15-story high-rises for the athletes competing in snow events, plus coaches and team officials; and a smaller facility in the nearby embankment resort town of Gangneung for arena athletes, such as hockey players and water ice skaters, and more personnel. Gangneung is also home to the Media Village for the many, many journalists in town.
Both locations are like fully functioning little towns of their own, boasting cafeterias featuring cuisine from all over the world, 24-hour gyms, banks, post offices, laundry facilities, media centers, convenience stores and houses of worship.
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There's WiFi (duh), game rooms with foosball, air hockey and video games, a relaxation room, a salon and—at the Gangneung location—a McDonald's.
Meanwhile, terminate-of-an-era alert, the fast-food giant's longtime sponsorship of the Olympics will not keep afterwards these Games. Their latest deal was originally supposed to extend through the 2020 Summertime Olympics in Tokyo, but last twelvemonth they announced that Pyeongchang would be information technology. In Rio, lines for McD'southward in the hamlet would regularly be out the door. Usain Bolt was apparently fueled past an average of 100 Chicken McNuggets a day during his triumphant showing in Beijing in 2008.
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Different locations take offered different amenities over the years, such equally the recording studio in London or the open bar in Sochi, where the Dutch athletes could likewise be seen zipping effectually on national-squad-color orangish bicycles. This year there's a Samsung-sponsored virtual reality attraction called "Wintertime Ride" which, naturally, simulates the thrill of winter sports like bobsledding and skiing.
Korean cultural exhibits have been set up in a museum side by side door and English translations of Korean literature are at that place for the checking out in the library.
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Athletes' quarters are grouped together in the villages via land, with most teams enjoying their own lounge, which means the tinier contingents (such as the i athlete apiece from Due south Africa, Singapore, et al.) have to rely a bit more on the coaches and supporters they've brought along with them for camaraderie. At showtime, anyhow—because, bated from the cutthroat competition, the Olympics are all about traversing borders and making new friends.
The 242 athletes from Squad United states make upward the largest presence as usual, while Switzerland is next with 169. Deutschland, Italy, Finland, Norway and Sweden (the Wintertime Olympics historically being Scandinavia'due south time to shine), Japan and the home team of South korea—who will march under ane flag with athletes from Due north Korea—each sent more than 100 people also.
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Probable to show up in more group shots and selfies than any one athlete, however, is the already ubiquitous Soohorang, the alarmingly adorable, plush-toy-friendly mascot of the Pyeongchang Games. Modeled subsequently the white tiger, Korea's guardian brute, and with "Sooho" pregnant "protection," there'southward a giant Soohorang exterior the Olympic Village and athletes from all over are already posing with their new dolls. But even for those in Southward Korea but not making the trip to the Olympics, Soohorang is unavoidable—he's greeting athletes at the Seoul airport en route to Pyeongchang, likewise.
Information technology also feels as if the entire American team has posed side by side to either the United states Olympic Squad logo or the Polo Ralph Lauren logo, the designer having one time again outfitted Team USA for the opening and endmost ceremonies. Merely either way, about everyone has proudly shown off some of their new threads ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
Oh, and security istight, tighter than ever in general, and so you don't want to be the athlete trying to sneak in later on curfew with no ID bluecoat.
A reported five,000 members of the military and upward of 10,000 police officers have been assigned to help continue the peace throughout the area. And according to the Korea Times, immigration authorities as well preemptively deported 17 foreigners who were deemed potential terrorist threats.
(The build-up hasn't been without its hiccups, though, of course: 1,200 private security staffers had to exist sidelined this week after 41 were infected with norovirus; 900 new security personnel were quickly hired to have their place. And those who had moved into the Gangneung Media Village already had a panoramic view of a nearby fire on Wednesday.)
South korea is expected to spend roughly $13 billion staging these Games, including the costs of erecting a new 40,000-seat stadium and lodging facilities—though that'south less than the $15 billion information technology cost Athens for the Summer Olympics in 2004 and the reported $40 billion debt Rio de Janeiro incurred for 2016.
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At the 2010 Winter Games, 2,400 skiers, snowboarders, bobsledders, etc., plus coaches and officials were tucked away in the mountains of Whistler at a $32 million facility, while the rest of the athletes were housed in a brand-new $one.one billion complex on the waterfront in downtown Vancouver, which subsequently the Games was turned into condos—finally helping the city compensate its massive investment in 2014. In 2016 there was some controversy virtually the level of preparedness for the Games in Rio de Janeiro, and rumors of unfinished rooms and other squalid conditions went into overdrive weeks beforehand.
Just while 10-figure cost tags will e'er make headlines, and aside from the national security concerns roiling the globe in general, the facilities in Pyeongchang seem A-OK so far.
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The athletes' apartments have their own bathrooms and contain basic effects—beds, chairs, desks, couches, TVs—and then they're allowed to decorate the space however they see fit.
This year'due south signature Olympic quilts, which are the athletes to keep afterwards the Games, come in two color palettes—an exuberant fuchsia, coral and purple or soothing shades of blue—and are decorated with streamlined silhouettes of athletes mid-ski, -skate, -snowboard etc.
Comfort level is obviously a priority, considering a expert night'south slumber can be so important to an athlete'due south functioning. Although for those who prefer an alternative to balance or working out to relieve stress, the sponsors accept them covered. Literally.
That's right, if every single athlete competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics feels like having sex at some betoken, their ability to exercise and then safely is at the ready.
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Once more, the number of condoms—a tape 37 per person—beingness made bachelor to the about 3,000 men and women competing for the side by side two weeks has fabricated the usual headlines. Probably because it inevitably makes it sound as if alot of hookups are taking place at the Olympic Village and surrounding environment.
"It'southward eye candy all the time. Everybody's checking everybody else out from moment they get there,"Cammi Granato, captain of the gold medal-winning U.S. women'southward hockey team in 1998 and the argent-winning team in 2002, told NBC News in 2010.
And a source who went to the Rio Games in 2016 told united states of america that the temper can get "pretty intense," what with all the people in the best shape of their lives gathered in shut quarters. But sex in the Hamlet is only part of what's going on backside closed doors—and probably some open up doors—in these not exactly luxurious only certainly full-service dormitories.
"Access to condoms is easy and many athletes take them, but I'm not certain of how many actually go used," swimmer Jimmy Feigenexplainedin a Reddit AMA in 2016, earlier he was swept upwardly in scandal with Ryan Lochte and 2 other teammates in Rio. "People generally focus on their events rather than getting laid. In one case the games are over the party begins! That is exterior the village though."
Though tell that to the organizers of the Sydney Games in 2000, when they had to send out formore than condoms when information technology turned out seventy,000 weren't enough.
Of course, the villages don't suit everybody. The U.Southward. men'south and women'due south basketball teams oasis't stayed in an Olympic Village since 1988, and in 2016 they raised eyebrows by setting up on a cruise send, the Silver Cloud, docked in the Port of Rio. Which you'd retrieve wouldn't really be that much more spacious for a bunch of really tall people, but that's what they did.
For these Games, it'due south the U.South. Tall Squad, including super-star skiers Lindsey Vonn,Mikaela Shiffrinand Gus Kenworthy, that will be staying off-site somewhere. (Vonn does take her dog, Lucy with her after all.)
But not all huge stars eschew the more humble surround—though the bigger the star, the more favorable the accommodations. Commodities, for instance, got his ain room in Rio, while near athletes share.
"I always get nervous particularly with my 200 meters," the Jamaican runner, who won 3 gold medals in Rio and retired from competition last twelvemonth, told reporters beforehand at his pre-Olympic training camp. "I do get nervous but when I become into the Hamlet it always goes away. I look forward to really getting in the Village and being around the other athletes and the excitement and the vibes."
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But what may be most remarkable about the Olympic Villages is that the very same people who could become legends of their sport in a matter of seconds, those who have trained most of their lives to become to that position, get to seetheir heroes too.
"You can't believe there'due south all these iconic champions from every sport you never thought you'd meet, and now you lot're having lunch with them," 1980 men's figure-skating gilt medalist Scott Hamilton, now a veteran skating commentator, told NBC News in 2010. (Pyeongchang medal hopeful Karen Chen felt the same about coming together Hamilton recently.)
"We merely met @usainbolt in the dining hall. Almost flipped the table over two get ii him. Who wouldn't? Sry thx for taking the time 2 meet us," Aly Raisman, who was staying in the Olympic Village along with the rest of the Final Five, tweeted in Rio. And, despite him not being an athlete, who can forget how thrilled the whole squad was to see Zac Efron in Rio, too?
The photo opps are already happening in Pyeongchang, as Team USA water ice dancers Maia Shibutani andAlex Shibutanishowed off a pic they took with snowboarding veteranShaun White, who'south competing in his fourth Winter Olympics, when they stopped to pick up their new team wearing apparel.
The Instagram posts started proliferating earlier this week every bit everyone from the defending Olympic champion Canadian women's hockey squad to the French freestyle skiers got settled in the village, with German bobsledder Annika Drazektaking a moment to show off some official swag and American cross-country skier Jessie Diggins getting in a training session.
Luger Erin Hamlinwill exist carrying the American flag in the Opening Ceremony this evening (aka 3 a.k. PT right now; the recorded festivities will air on NBC this night in prime number-time), and she gave the rail at the $114.5 million Alpensia Sliding Center her seal of approval earlier this week.
So without further adieu, let the Games begin!
Source: https://www.eonline.com/news/911780/inside-olympic-village-life-at-the-2018-winter-games-in-pyeongchang-the-condoms-are-only-the-beginning
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