FOOD FOR COMFORT

Finland’s Riikka Valila, the oldest women’s ice hockey player in Olympic history at 44, likes the food options in South Korea, but misses the “really good bread” back in Finland. She said some of her teammates on glutenfree diets have brought food from home.

The Americans shipped over 85 pallets, each about 6 feet tall and 3 feet deep and wide, filled with pastas, sauces, peanut butter, grains

and plants like quinoa, and spices, according to Susie Parker-Simmons, a sports dietitian for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

There’s food meant to help with performance and recovery, but there’s also “psychological food,” which Parker-Simmons explains like this: Say an athlete training her whole life for the Olympics fails.

She takes it hard; she stops eating. This is when the dietitians will turn to something special — a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, maybe, or CheezIts.

Vincent Zhou, a U.S. figure skater, said he needs a lot of carbs, “before, between and after sessions,” to fend off fatigue.

“It hasn’t been very difficult finding

comfort food,” he said.

For halfpipe gold-medallist Chloe Kim, it’s a deep-fried treat.

“Oh and I also had 2 churros today and they were pretty bomb so if you ever get nervous go eat a churro,” the 17-year-old American tweeted two days before she dominated her way to the podium.