For Americans, Olympics are not Just About Sports

While I knew this was true, it shocked me to read an article on Bloomberg.com detailing the thoughts and actions of Olympic athletes after they were finished competing. Are the Olympics really just about sport? Or is it more about the sex, “fame”, and glamour that come in the days following? In my case, it was about the sport, according to Scott Soshnick and a number of high profile sports figures, it seems that the sex and partying may be what the Olympics are all about.

With all the commingling going on, perhaps the Olympic motto of swifter, higher, stronger should be amended to reflect the abundance of amour.

The organizing committees are aware of the fraternization, which is why condoms are readily available in the village.

There’s more at work here than just hormones. Athletes train for years to fulfill their Olympic dream. And when it’s over, no matter the outcome, there’s a tremendous sense of elation.

“We train hard and then we party hard,” says swimmer Summer Sanders, who won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze at the 1992 Olympics. “You have to understand it’s the extreme of every emotion. The incredible sense of relief and release is pretty much what occurs.”

For the record, Sanders, then 19 years old, said she didn’t partake in any fooling around. Her catharsis came in the form of Barcelona’s trendy clubs, some of which she sampled until sunrise.

“I was about going out and dancing until 8 a.m., not sucking face, my first thought wasn’t hooking up,” says Sanders.

By contrast, Brendan Hansen’s Olympic experience sounds like a bacchanal.

Hansen, 24, won gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Then it was party time.

The swimming events usually are held early in the Summer Games, affording Hansen and his teammates the chance to, as he put it, keep up international relations.

“It’s like spring break. It gets pretty crazy, I’m not going to lie,” Hansen says. “When you’re half-naked and shaved, the girls tend to flock to you.”

By the time some athletes are done competing, some are more than ready for a good time.

American speedskater Chad Hedrick told the Wall Street Journal that he planned to avoid sex for at least two weeks prior to the Olympics in order to save his strength. Victor Plata, a member of the U.S. triathlon team, says he went 233 days without sex before the Athens Olympics.

With all that pent-up energy, the U.S. Olympic Committee wants to make sure that its athletes conduct themselves with the proper decorum. To ensure that they do, the USOC prior to the Olympics stages a one-hour presentation outlining what’s expected of athletes representing their country. A portion is devoted to, let’s call it personal etiquette.

The way Hansen tells it, the well-known athletes, especially those with medals dangling from their necks, get VIP treatment. It’s all limousines and private parties.

“You’re the star of the show,” Hansen says.

source: Olympic Passion More Potent Than Quest for Gold