A bite of the Rio Olympics

Turkmenistan team members eat McDonald's food inside the Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

As the old Chinese saying goes, "Food is the first necessity of the people." As it is, for Olympians. Although the Rio Olympics organizing committee is trying to satisfy the big mixing pot which collects people worldwide, the athletes have their own way fuel-up. Some are given special favor by their countries, some grab junk food while others are doomed to miss all the cake.

The Olympic village offers five different kinds of food everyday including Brazilian, Asian, western-style, Islamic and many others considering the multiple dietary habits of athletes. Pasta, pizza, Korean pickles, Japanese Miso soup and natto, local Brazilian dishes and fruits can all be found at the cafeteria equivalent of two football fields and contains more than 5,000 people.

The number of people can reach 50,000 at rush hour and ingredients 210,000 kilo to provide 60,000 tons of food each day.

According to the supervisor of Olympic village, Rio Olympic organizing committee has launched food test from May to prevent cholesterol and clenbuterol. All the food would also go through official check of IOC and be clearly indicated the content of calorie, protein, carbohydrate, fat and salt. All the ingredients need to be delivered the same day to guarantee freshness.

Chances are that the multiple choices in the Olympic village can't satisfy everyone, some delegations still cook special treats for their athletes outside such as Japan, South Korea and China who introduces many of their local special cuisine.

Before the Rio Games opened, Chinese delegation has settled in St. Paulo in advance for warm-up trainings. They hired two local Chinese cooks and more than ten dishes are available every meal.

Other delegations are not that lucky and some even fell for the giant McDonald's that offers free food to athletes. It's worried and warned that McDonald's may ruin their strict dietary patterns.

In contrary to those gluttons, there are also athletes who have denied all these delicacies, especially weight lifters who hold the heaviest but eat the least. Due to weight-lifting rules which rate athletes on the basis of weight, the weight control can be inhumane to them. Chicken soup, beef soup, tea and sauna are all used to balance their strength and weight.

Chinese 69kg class weight lifter Shi Zhiyong has to say no to the delicious Brazilian barbecue. The gold medalist of diving Chen Ruolin of China has once kept a one-meal-a-day life and even passed out. Guess their biggest wish is having a pig-out after bringing home a medal.