‘Disneyland for adults’ launches dream ride
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Natalie Spooner figured it was a good time to get her long, lovely tresses trimmed.
Three full hours of free time, and a free hairstylist at the athletes village, and voila.
“We had three hours of practice this morning and coach told us to just enjoy ourselves for a while,” said the 27-yearold, a member of Canada’s women’s hockey team. “I think she was hoping we’d get sick of this place and come back ready to work hard.”
Didn’t make use of the gratis manicure service, though. What does a hockey playing forward need with customized painted fingernails anyway?
“Opening ceremonies coming up, want my hair to look good for that.”
Spooner, from Toronto, is a returning Olympian, part of the team that won gold at Sochi by defeating archrival U.S. 3-2 in overtime.
With teammate Brigette Lacquette, Spooner was ambling around the Olympic plaza at the Gangneung village — the coastal cluster for “ice sports” athletes — on Friday afternoon, an assortment of shops and services located inside what the army would call a “big ass” tent, among the many temporary facilities erected for the Pyeongchang Games.
Let’s see. There’s the hair salon and a convenience store, an official Olympics merchandise emporium, a travel agency that will arrange local tours, a polyclinic, a cultural kiosk for anybody interested in partaking of a traditional tea ceremony, a performance stage where a Korean girl band was entertaining the crowd, and a Samsung outlet boasting all the latest smartphone gadgetry.
Although, on this afternoon, the most fascinating spectacle was smoke billowing into the sky from what police described as a major fire at a nearby condo block — outside the village — apparently started at a construction site behind a café. Athletes could be seen videotaping from their windows on the residential side of the village complex and sending out tweets. One wrote: “An emergency alert just blasted phones here in South Korea. Looks like it’s due to the massive fire we have a front-row seat for in our 16th floor apartment.”
Everybody at the village received an emergency text message warning about the blaze. The athletes were never in any danger and continued going about their business/pleasure. Incoming teams continued to be welcomed and delegations gathered for national flag-raising ceremonies as fire brigades rushed to the scene, sirens blaring.
Mixed doubles curler Kaitlyn Lawes called the athletes village “Disneyland for adults — the happiest place in the world.” Possibly the best-looking collection of human beings in the world, at this moment, all those extraordinarily fit bodies and radiant faces, identifiable (except for pariah Russians) by their country kit, with layers of clothing coming off on what was an unseasonably warm and blindingly sunny day.
It’s certainly a pleasant place to hang out before and after competition, athletes mingling with journalists and other interlopers who are allowed strictly controlled access to the International Zone.
Over in the vast main dining hall, a 24/7 operation, the just-arrived Canadian men’s hockey team was chowing down. They were grazing and choosing from a cornucopia of menu items: carved roast beef, lamb samosa, traditional English fry-up, seaweed soup, ever-present kimchi. Six different buffets, including Italian, Asian, world and Korean cuisine. Salads coming out the yin-yang. Tons of ice cream plus drinks and snacks.
A food court like no other, with 180 chefs — including 30 halal cooks — and 40 patissiers cranking out nearly 200 dishes, at its peak serving upwards of 7,000 meals daily at this location, even more up in the snow-cluster athletes village, home to 3,700 athletes and their entourages.
“They are athletes, they love meat like steak and chicken breast,” head chef Yang Eui-Yong told reporters on a media tour. “Unexpectedly, however, Korean food is popular among athletes here.”
The previous day, the main menu featured Korean barbecue. “We had thought some 50 kilograms of meat would be consumed, but they ate 100 kilograms.”
The restaurant also has a catering service and will whip up birthday cakes on two days’ notice.
Athletes, like armies, apparently travel on their stomach. Of course, they burn off all those calories lickety-split, with a much-used gymnasium on the residential side.
Recently Yang met with team doctors from all the delegations to review the food options. “They are satisfied with the menu’s nutrition and taste. But we’ll not let our guard down until the end of the Olympics.”
Beyond the International Zone is where the athletes are living for the Olympic fortnight — nine residential buildings 22 to 25 storeys high, with 922 housing units accommodating 2,717 athletes, coaches and trainers.
They can relax at a massage centre, play pool and air hockey, soak in therapeutic tubs or kick back at a recreational hall. There’s a multi-faith prayer room and medical facilities, 30 doctors and nurse on-site, and psychiatrists available should anybody need one. Athletes can also receive acupuncture treatment and traditional Oriental medicine.
A hundred and ten thousand condoms for the taking, by the way.
Spooner, the hockey player, pronounced the accommodations here superior to what the athletes had in Sochi. “It’s like being in a condo, with separate bedrooms and a communal living area. Really spacious. In Sochi, we were three people in a room.”
Naturally, the Canadians have swathed their chunk of the residential mini-city — Kim Ki-hoon, who anchored South Korea’s 1,000-metre short-track team to the country’s first Winter Olympics gold in Albertville is the “mayor” — in maple leaf flags unfurled from the windows. Their neighbours are the Finns, the Brits and the South Koreans, who’ve sheathed their building in a top-to-bottom artistic screen with giant Hangul script. The “Olympic Athletes from Russia” are not permitted to fly the flag or otherwise decorate their building with Russian swag, but they are allowed to hang flags inside their units, out of sight.
The most popular pastime, however — and clandestinely — is Spot the North Korean.
One chef reveals, sotto voce: “They like spaghetti and pizza.”
With 180 chefs — including 30 halal cooks — and 40 patissiers serving upwards of 7,000 meals daily, Winter Olympic athletes won’t be short on fuel