London Olympic Village 2012: Despite issues, athletes are excited
Life is altogether different in London Olympic Village 2012. Despite issues, athletes are excited and happy. Minor issues will be taken care of, anyway
organizers of the Olympic Village in London have denied there was any water problem in the village, after the supply to cafes in the communal area was interrupted for several hours.
Huge water tanks were seen heading into the village, but the organizers said that these were for the use of horticultural purposes and there were no issues with water supply at all. During that time, the café in the village, which is the main source of sustenance in the village for 27,000 staffs and home to 18,000 athletes during the Games, unexpectedly closed down for several hours after problems with the water supply cropped up.
Other smaller take-away facilities were also affected and stayed closed. These places were all located in the area of the village, which includes shops, a salon and a pharmacy. Athletes can mingle with visitors and the media here.
A spokeswoman for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games just revealed that the problem was localised and got resolved by Thursday.
For weeks, the rumours of water supply woes in the Olympic village had been going around and some journalists previewing the locales prior to the arrival of teams this Monday also faced problems and witnessed the issues.
However, since the arrival of the first athletes, no such troubles have been reported with the water supply in the athletes’ blocks. On the other hand, most of the athletes were all praises for the facilities they received on arrival at their temporary bases.
On arrival each team in the village is greeted by the mayor of the village, Charles Allen, at a ceremony performed by members of the National Youth Theatre
The opening ceremony is now about a week ahead and most of the 1,300 of the 18,000 athletes and officials that will stay in London’s Olympic and Paralympic Athletes’ village over the coming month have already arrived.
The coverage of the situation and environment in the village is clearly seen, thanks to Twitter and Facebook updates by athletes
Diver Tom Daley and swimmer Rebecca Adlington posted pictures of their rooms on Twitter. While Adlington captioned the picture, “”Only been here a few hours and my room is a mess!!!”, Daley had put up Olympic bunting and posters and declared, “My room in the Olympic village all decorated 
heading back to Southend now for our pre-camp…back on the 25th 
” to his 250,000 followers.
Those who got their rooms nearest to the 5,000-seater dining room are being considered most lucky. The facility is neon strip-lit Serengeti with bench after bench of plastic primary school seats.
Janet Matthews is in charge of catering for the entire Olympics, which includes 27,000 staff 18,000 athletes. Of the millions of meals that would be served in the village, 1.2 million will be served in her sprawling canteen, which she called, “Room for 880 double-decker buses.”
There are separate sands for Asian, Best of British, Halal and Caribbean have their own stands, next to cavernous fridges of the official soft beverage.
Matthews fed British soldiers in Germany in her previous job. She explained, “An army marches on its stomach, and that’s true for athletes as well.”
She added, “When I arrived, I was all, oooh, what can we do here, fancy this and that. I found out that athletes just care about carbohydrate and protein. It’s chicken, pasta, rice, toast, porridge.”
The Olympians are all fussy eaters and every carton of cucumber at the buffet is also labeled with a very precise indication of fat, carbohydrate and calorific content.
Athletes are already thrilled with what they are getting there.
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