Three million bananas and 600 to 800 baguettes a day. These are some of the items on the shopping list of the catering companies at the Olympic Village in Paris when the world’s elite athletes come together to compete for the coveted medals, according to the BBC Food Chain podcast. What Olympians eat (upon request).
Swimmer Michael Phelps popularized the 5,000-calorie-a-day diet, but that’s not the reality for all Olympians.
Each of them must follow a “carefully crafted diet” depending on the sport they practice – so on TikTok you can see a long-distance runner or swimmer stuffing themselves endlessly with carbohydrates (or chocolate muffins), while weightlifters, sprinters and boxers rely on multiple steaks.
Holly Bradshaw, pole vaulter for the British team, knows this better than anyone, as her diet has been carefully planned since she was a teenager. “If I’m too light, my poles are too stiff. If I’m too heavy, they’re too soft,” she explained. This extremely strict relationship with food can affect the way athletes view their bodies and affect their self-esteem, which in turn can affect performance, noted Alicia Glass, lead nutritionist for the US team.
That means feeding hundreds of Olympians behind the scenes is just as complex. Caterers must not only provide enough food, but the right food for a very diverse group of people. The various canteen stations, featuring regional cuisines from Indian to Caribbean, take up a stadium-sized area – “it’s like entering the lion’s den,” Bradshaw said.
The common thread? They’ll all get huge portions of fries when this is all over.
