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What happens when 15,000 international athletes—including almost 600 from the United States—converge on a single city to compete at the Olympic Games? Well, for one thing, they’ll eat a whole lot. And if the city just so happens to be Paris? Then we can probably safely assume they’ll eat quite well.
Olympic organizers estimate they’ll serve up a total of 13 million meals at the Games, including 2.2 million to athletes and their teams. Team USA members will likely eat many of these in the Olympic Village, but the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) won’t leave anything to chance when it comes to fueling athletes, Brian Knutson, director of Food and Nutrition Services, tells SELF.
Case in point: Along with the main dining hall in the Village, the USOPC will also operate a High Performance Center about 10 miles north of Paris, in Eaubonne. There, Team USA athletes will have access to a range of top-notch services, including a separate dining hall. In addition, a team of more than a dozen dietitians will travel to Paris to stay on top of each athlete’s individual nutritional needs.
So what exactly will they be eating—and how will they go about getting their meals in the middle of the biggest competitions of their lives? Here’s more about how and what the country’s top performers will eat as they represent Team USA at the Summer Games in Paris.
In the Olympic Village, athletes can dine at any hour they want.
Beginning on July 12—two weeks before the official start of the Games—the main canteen in the Olympic Village will be open 24/7. That’s huge for athletes, who might finish competing late at night or early in the morning (basically, outside of “normal” meal hours). Each day, catering staff will serve up to 40,000 meals, both in a 3,500-seat dining hall and in to-go containers.
While some of the food will have a French flair—think salt cod and potato mash and a veggie bourguignon—there will also be dishes to make athletes from all 200-plus nationalities feel at home. Meals will fall into four themes, organizers say: France, Asia (think minced pork with Thai basil and basmati rice), Africa-Caribbean (a shakshuka stir-fry with peppers and onions), and world cuisine (veggie moussaka).
If none of the 40 different meals offered each day strike an athlete’s fancy, they can visit the hot food buffet, a salad bar with more than 30 options, or a grill with meat and sides. There will also be plenty of fruit and dessert, and five takeaway kiosks to make it easy to grab food to go.
In addition, if athletes are looking for a little more ambiance, a separate food court with a 5,400 square foot outdoor terrace will serve up signature meals by local culinary stars. For instance, they can try a poached-egg croissant with artichoke and goat cheese from chef Amandine Chaignot, who has two restaurants in Paris (Pouliche and Café de Luc).
To make it all more sustainable, there’s a focus on plant-based and local foods.
In line with a big focus on sustainability throughout the Games, Paris 2024 has pledged to cut the carbon footprint for catering in half. To that end, they’re making more dishes veggie-forward and reducing the use of animal products by 50 to 60% throughout all Olympic facilities.
They’re also looking local: About 80% of the products consumed (including all beef and eggs) will be of French origin, with one-fourth coming from within about 155 miles of Paris. And organizers aim to halve the weight of single-use plastics throughout Olympic catering facilities, meaning more reusable glass bottles and tableware, fewer and smaller plastic bottles, and a push to recycle and compost when possible.
And, of course, there will be bread. Lots of bread.
France doesn’t skimp on carbs, so the Village will be no different. Paris is known for its boulangeries and pâtisseries, and athletes will get to taste it all. An on-site bakery will turn out fresh baguettes and even offer workshops for athletes, where they’ll shape and bake their own long, thin loaves.
Team USA will travel with a team of dietitians.
If all those options are making your head swarm, you’re not alone: First-time Olympians often find the size and variety of the dining hall overwhelming, Alicia Glass, senior sports dietitian for the USOPC, tells SELF. As they prepare for what might be their biggest-ever event, they want food that meets their nutritional needs, doesn’t cause gastrointestinal distress, and makes them feel comfortable, confident, and ready to perform at their best.
That’s where the dozen-plus USOPC dietitians come in, with each team assigned at least one. For example, Glass works with swimmers at the beginning of the meet, and track and field athletes later in the competition. “One of the biggest things our job focuses on is creating a home-field advantage, which is hard when you’re in an international country,” Glass says.
To get there, she provides personalized nutrition advice to athletes throughout the year if they want it. She also coordinated with Knutson and his team to get familiar foods like protein bars, peanut butter, and fruit snacks shipped from the US to France. (They placed orders around Christmastime to make sure the shelf-stable foods could clear customs.)
On the ground in Paris, she plans to walk athletes through the dining hall, helping them find choices that align with what they eat at home. She’ll scope out menus and ingredient lists, ensuring they get the nutrients they need and avoid allergens. And she’ll give them tips on locating water stations and coffee in the Village, as well as help them think through the logistics—for instance, if they’ll actually have time to wait in line for a latte before catching a bus to their training facility or competition venue.
This year, she’ll have some high-tech help, through an app called Teamworks Nutrition. Athletes can use the app to track what they’re eating during the Games, making sure they’re getting all the macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) and micronutrients (such anti-inflammatory polyphenols and vitamin C found in fruits and vegetables). If they want a dietitian’s opinion, Glass and her colleagues can check the app and make recommendations; they can also use the app to order meals for delivery or other special requests.
And Team USA athletes will enjoy a whole separate dining hall just for them.
American athletes also have the option of eating meals at the High Performance Center, a one-stop shop that houses another 250-seat dining hall, in addition to sports medicine and mental health practitioners, as well as hot and cold plunge pools and cryotherapy chambers. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will be well-stocked with familiar items, says Knutson, who estimates they’ll serve about 25,000 meals to Team USA Olympians, Paralympians, coaches, and staffers.
Over the past several years, he’s traveled to Paris five times to scope out the local markets and food halls for local, fresh ingredients, so they know what they can purchase on-site versus what they’ll need to ship. In total, the USOPC sends about 34 palettes of food to Paris ahead of time, including staples like powdered peanut butter and 11,000 bottles of Core Power protein shakes.
Knutson and his team, including staff dietitian Hilary Kave, have created a menu of about 250 dishes, some with a French flair and others that are thoroughly American (dietitians like Kave calculate the nutritional details of each one, so athletes know exactly what they’re getting). Ingredients include around 8,000 pounds of protein: 3,100 pounds of chicken, 1,200 pounds of beef, and hearty helpings of salmon, shrimp, pork, and tofu. In addition to a recently remodeled kitchen, Knutson has purchased two outdoor grills to prepare some of the meats in ways athletes are used to.
And then, of course, there are more carbs. In addition to an estimated 2,800 pounds of pasta (up from the 2,000 pounds they served in Tokyo), there will be baguettes on hand here, too, baked up from a bakery just down the street. Knutson estimates they’ll go through about 100 to 150 loaves per day.
In addition to the dining hall at the HPC, food will be available in a special athlete-only lounge and a nutrition recovery center, stocked with items perfect for pre- or post-workout fueling. And help will be available 24/7 to make meals or grab snacks, even if they go beyond what’s already been shipped or acquired. “If I can physically make it happen, I will,” Glass says.
That might require one or more trips to secure out-of-the-ordinary or out-of-stock items: “If that means Hilary talks to an athlete and their favorite thing is freeze-dried oranges, she would hop in the car, run down to the grocery store, and find them,” Knutson says.
Or it can be as simple as spreading jam on bread. Michael Phelps, for instance, made a beeline to take some of the three loaves’ worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Glass would prepare after each swimming session in Rio. “In the Olympic Games, where the entire world is watching—by simply just handing a peanut butter and jelly to an athlete, they look at you like they want to hug you,” she says. “That’s why we do what we do.”
Athletes can also get food to go, or even delivered to their competition site.
The HPC will also pack up about 3,000 to 4,000 boxed meals and send them out with athletes or directly to competition venues. That’s especially important for athletes like swimmers, who might compete in multiple events per day and lack time to head to the dining hall in between, Glass says. She and her colleagues will use the Teamworks Nutrition app to place orders for each team and athlete and make sure the right food gets where it needs to go.
For example, say Katie Ledecky has a race at night and wins. Afterward, she might have to provide a urine or blood sample for drug testing, then do media interviews, hug and thank her family, and do a warm-down (what swimmers call a cooldown) to recover and prepare for her next event. She might not return to the Village for two to three hours after touching the pool wall.
So Glass and her team will deliver hot meals to the pool—nutritious but portable items like rice bowls, topped with lean protein and plenty of veggies. That way, Ledecky and her teammates can refuel on site and then hit the sack when they get back to the Village, since they might have to do it all again starting early the next morning.
Marathoners have the added challenge of needing to take in fuel not only before and after, but also during their 26.2-mile race. Glass and her colleagues work with athletes on fine-tuning their plans, including education on how factors like heat and humidity (which will probably be all-too-present in Paris) might affect how many fluids and carbohydrates they need. And due to the course layout this year, which is one large loop instead of several smaller ones, each of Team USA’s five to six marathoners might need as many as 16 staffers to hand them their bottles along the route, she says.
All of this is a lot of logistics and work for the USOPC staff, on top of what’s already provided to all Olympians. But the end goal is giving Team USA athletes what they need when it counts. “We do everything we can on the food side to make sure our athletes are happy, healthy, and ready to compete for gold medals,” Knutson says.
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