Athletes say Olympic fare a disappointment
Quality of food at athletes’ village not up to Italian standards
SESTRIERE, Italy - American bobsledders Vonetta Flowers and Jean Prahm push away trays of Olympic-issue food: A barely nibbled pizza, sauteed beef getting cold on a bed of rice, a half-dozen untouched Chinese dumplings.
“The banana was good,” says Flowers, breaking into laughter.
For many athletes and coaches, the quality of food at the athletes’ village in this Alpine hub is no laughing matter.
An international coalition of the hungry — from Russians to Kazakhs to Americans — has been lobbying their Italian hosts to do something about what they describe as bland and nutritionally questionable grub.
The disappointment has been elevated because this is Italy, where food and wine are national obsessions.
But village officials say the Olympians simply can’t expect gourmet quality in an operation that caters to more than 1,000 athletes.
“This isn’t supposed to be a five-star restaurant,” said deputy venue manager Stefano Possenti. “They’re not here to drink champagne and Barolo wine.”
Similar food at past Olympics
That view got a royal seconding from Prince Albert of Monaco — a five-time Olympian in bobsled — who ate at the canteen with the bobsled team of his tiny principality.
The food at Sestriere “compares favorably” to Olympic villages past, he said. “It’s more Italian in flavor, there’s more culinary choice.”
Those who complain say it isn’t just a question of eating well, but of eating right.
During the first week of the games, some Olympians said, there weren’t enough veggies at the salad bar. Others complained the hosts had no concept of the grainy, high-fiber breads athletes need.
While those problems have been largely resolved, the grumbles about food continued during a recent tour of the village by journalists.
Russian bobsledder Nadezda Orlova didn’t need words to describe what she thought of the food — she just gave a thumbs down signal.
Her physiotherapist, Alexander Kluykov, said he feared the food could affect Orlova’s performance.
“She wants to eat, but she can’t,” he said. “When you eat something it must taste of something, it must smell of something.”
In the prefabricated tent that houses the cafeteria, American skier Ted Ligety, who won gold in the combined, left a plate of pasta with tomato sauce half finished on the eve of the giant slalom.
“The food here is actually not so good,” he said. “The highlight this week is that they installed a machine for ice-cream bars.”
Banana diet
Flowers and Prahm also abandoned a balanced diet as they prepared for the women’s bobsled event. “This is our pre-race meal — bananas,” said Flowers, an Olympic gold medalist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
Apparently the banana strategy wasn’t a winner. Flowers and Prahm, finished the first night of bobsled in ninth place.
The ice-cream fueled Ligety didn’t even complete his giant slalom run.
Olympic food officials gave conflicting accounts of whether the bulk of food is prepared in Sestriere, or merely reheated there.
Possenti said the only pre-prepared meals at the village are the frozen pizzas fired up in the cafeteria ovens.
Stefano Bianchi, the village catering manager, said meals were first prepared in the northern Italian city of Bologna, vacuum packed, then “reactivated” in the village kitchens.
Asked about athletes’ complaints concerning tough meat, Bianchi responded, “there will be some soft bits and some hard bits ... These things don’t always go perfectly.”
Not everyone was critical of the cooking.
“I think the food is good, especially the Chinese food,” said Polish bobsledder Mariusz Latkowski.
Then he added: “But I’m sad there isn’t a McDonald’s here.”
The Associated Press
