According
to ex-Olympian
turned commentator Matthew Syed, the two are synonymous. In
a column for Times Online, he said his first Olympics in Barcelona
where he represented Britain in Table Tennis was as much about sex
as about sport.I talked to a New Zealand athlete who told me about what went on behind the
scenes at the Beijing Olympics.Unfortunately,athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR manager -least of all about debaucherous behavior.
However,the athlete agreed to do the interview as long as they remained anonymous. We
arrived early August to the Olympic Village. It's basically like a small city in which you could walk around the perimeter in about 20 minutes. On the plane we were shown a documentary that they'd shipped all of the homeless people and prostitutes from the city, so
it looked okay.
"Each
country has its own apartment block. We were next to Russia and
Hungary.
"At
first it was a real serious vibe. Everyone on the village was
extremely focused and pumped up. We were all concentrating on our
events. Although, the girls still liked to flaunt it - you'd see
them jogging around in their little short-shorts. A lot of the guys
would walk around thinking they were the best thing since sliced
bread too.
"But
towards the last four to five days, everyone's events were
finishing and things started to get pretty loose.
"There
were two bars outside the Olympic Village called Heinekin Bar and
Budweiser Bar which served free Heinekin and Budweiser. I went to
these bars about five nights in a row and saw some pretty messy
behaviour.
"There
were people from different countries all shapes and sizes hooking up.
People were all over each other and boozing it up in a big way. There
were round seats where you could hang out which got pretty violated,
and some people even jumped in the Budweiser pool which you weren't
allowed to get in.
"I
also
met a swimmer from Iceland who I'm pretty sure was having sex with
Coby Bryant. She told me she was meeting him for dinner and had been
texting him all week. She seemed quite happy with herself."
According
to Syed, this behavior happens at every Olympics.
At
the Seoul Olympics in 1988, there is a famous story that there were
so many used condoms on the roof of the British team's apartments
that the British Olympic Association sent out an edict banning
outdoor sex.
Handing
out of thousands of free condoms to athletes in Beijing seemed to
confirm the Chinese knew about the sexual escapades, and went with
the theory "if you can't stop it, make it safe".
But
are our athletes involved in this behaviour?
One
athlete at the games
known only as ‘Mike" (perhaps Mr Phelps?) posted the following on
a website;
"I
ran into some Kiwis out in Sanlitun (a popular nightlife area in
Beijing) the other night. They had been eliminated from their
competition and were really cutting loose. To say that there was
sexual energy flowing off these ladies would be a massive
understatement. Wow."
My
anonymous athlete confirmed this.
"People
in the New Zealand Squad were having one night stands with each
other, and then moving on to the next one. I personally know that
around a quarter of the New Zealand squad was doing this, although it
could have been more. One NZ athlete even had sex with a catering
person."
Perhaps
this all fits in with nature's way of humans wanting to procreate
with the best genetic match possible.
An
Olympic village is full of thousands of exotic, virile athletes at
their physical and mental peaks oozing hormones and sexual energy -
all whilst wearing skintight lycra.
It
certainly seems a perfect breeding ground for this behaviour to
occur.
Then
again these sexual escapades may be simply due to the relief of four
years of training coming to an end; a way of releasing four years of
tension.
As
Syed puts it, "how
else is this going to manifest itself than with a volcanic release of
pent-up hedonism?"
Whatever
conclusions are to be made, one conclusion springs to mind first; I
should have tried harder in P.E.
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