They’ve sacrifi ced years to make it to the Olympics. Then, for the two most important weeks of their lives, they’re pent up with 10,000 other tense, fun-deprived athletes. What happens when they all fi nally let loose? by ALEX FRENCH AND HOWIE KAHN illustration by JOHN MATTOS

VILLAGE

IDIOTSMEN’S JOURNAL 74 AUGUST 2012 he race is on. Not in the pool or on the track, but through the congested streets of Athens, at a quarter to three in the morning. It’s August 2004, and the Summer Olympics are in full swing: games all day, parties all night. Ouzo! Opa! But if Evan Morgenstein, an agent who has taken some medal-winning clients out for a night of celebratory Southern Comfort, doesn’t get his charges back to the Olympic Village before their 3 am curfew, he’ll be screwed and they’ll be homeless T— and not just for the night. Because no matter how many medals an Olympian is wearing around his neck, no matter how many twists he can do off a springboard, if he misses his curfew, he’ll be out on the street — for the duration of the Games. “Holy shit,” Morgenstein recalls saying. “It’s 18 minutes to three.” With minutes to go and much of the city to cover — the Village is 12 miles outside Athens — Morgenstein starts chucking Greeks out of the way to get out of the bar. At the curb, he pushes his athletes into the back of a Mercedes cab, and the three of them squeeze in, shoulder to shoulder. But the driver won’t budge. “No,” he says. “No.” He hates Americans, thinks George Bush is the devil — so Morgenstein lies. “We’re Canadian!” he says. That gets the driver moving. But not fast enough, so Morgenstein reaches for his wallet and starts throwing twenties at the guy. “We have to be back!” he yells at the driver. “I don’t give a shit what you have to do!” Somehow, they manage to stumble past the Village checkpoint with seconds to spare. They’re in — gold-medal drunks laughing their asses off, laughing to the point of tears because they realize how much that ride just mattered: It saved their spot in the Village, the rarefied confines of Olympic privilege whose highly selective gates open every four years, as they’re opening now in London, to provide the world’s top amateur athletes with a safe, media-free campus, filled with young, incredibly fit peers, on which to truly let loose for the first time in years.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published an official 342-page manual with the sole function of specifying every detail of the design and construction of the Olympic Village — from the number of athletes to a bathroom (four), to the amount of hanging space per closet (60 centimeters), to the number of locking drawers (two), to where live ammunition should be stored (somewhere far away from the rifles). And, of course, the IOC devotes a page to articulating the Village mission: “The Olympic Village caters to the athletes’ needs by creating a comfortable environment to facilitate the mental and physical preparation for participation in the Olympic Games free from disturbance from the outside world.” It says nothing about internal disturbances. It makes no mention, for example, of all-night house parties, maniacal roommates, or hormone-fueled gropefests. “It was like Disneyland minus the rides and with far more hard bodies,” says Amy Van Dyken, an American swimmer and six-time gold medalist, who competed in Sydney in 2000 and in Atlanta in 1996. “You walk out of your dorm and into the quad,” says swimmer Cullen Jones, “and there are flags everywhere. You can see them hanging from the windows: That’s the Brazilian building, that’s the British building.” Beneath the flags — excessive numbers of flags are also mandated by the Olympic charter — exists a fully functional city where everything is on the house. There are florists and dry cleaners and a pharmacy, a post office, a travel agent, and a multifaith prayer center. Athletes can go to the spa for lavender wraps or a Thai massage, scarf a burger and a Coke at the Village McDonald’s, or play a game of foosball. There’s a nightclub, where no alcohol is served, as well as a listening lounge with soft chairs and neutral lighting and a substantial music library. The Village at the Atlanta Games had a laser-tag “stadium,” where one Ecuadoran athlete spent so much time he was reported missing. There are sightseeing excursions and postings for special field trips. At the Atlanta Games, gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard an- swered a bulletin-board post and wound up escorting Vice President Al Gore and his family to a volleyball game. In Barcelona, free bikes CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DPA/ZUMAPRESS.COM; ALEXANDER HASSENSTEIN/BONGARTS/GETTY IMAGES; JULIE JACOBSON/AP PHOTO; COURTESY OF GARY HALL JR.

------Olympians, the weeks Over the years, the media has reported ning it all, so when you don’t, and you react you and don’t, you when all, so it ning to the depression and the release, you can seedirtysome how things happen.” exhaustively theon distribution contraof reports, to According Village. the in ceptives the condom machines in the Albertville,re be to had France,Village1992) (Winter filledevery two hours.theAt 2002 Winter Olympic medals. “But every day, 10 percent percent 10 everyday, medals.“But Olympic of the athletes complete their obligations, and then they’re ready to party. So by the theof end third 20 percent theof day, Vil lage is having fun. At the end of the sixth Villagethehaving fun. is of percent 50 day, And the parties get louder and louder and and louder.” louder For a great many spent in the Village are the most fraught, lives. their overanalyzed of weeks tense, “that Hall, says intense,” so is pressure “The canwalk you through theVillage and,with identifywords, having exchangeof any out versus compete to yet have athleteswho the in It’s competing. done are athleteswho the mannerisms.” their expressions, facial their In all likelihood, those who are done com medaled. petingnot “Thatto canhave lead who Barrett, Casey says recklessness,” some swam for Canada in Atlanta in 1996 and came in 11th. “It’s, like, ‘Shit, now what?’ There’s this big letdown. It didn’t matter what kind of a long shot you were — you cametheto Olympics with dreams win of ------2012 AUGUST 76 But once their last event is over, they’re Securing quiet, comfortable, drama- comfortable, Securing quiet, MEN’S JOURNAL swimming icon John whoNaber, won five cellence. They have suffered through pre through suffered have They cellence. dawn workouts, freezing-cold water,injury. heat agonizing and cramps, muscle stroke, party keg a or prom a to been never They’ve almostor anywhere youthful abandon flour ishes.They’ve abstained from refined sug have They sloth. teenage and sleepovers, ars, consumed 9,000 calorieswith all a it day in supplemented bland, and proteins boiled nutritional and glutamine, creatine, much so thattheirdigestive powder tracts gushlike waterslides. free — truly, wantonly free. “The Olympic be tone serious rather a with begins Village says do,” to everybodycausejob a hasthere He’d sit down on the bed, another knock. “I knock.“I anotherbed, the on down sit He’d signed200aboutautographs,” saysLewis. and room, my to coming kept athletes “Other find to a had I stay. to possible wasn’t just it stay to attempted never Lewis rent.” to house Olympics, third my “By again. Village the in in Barcelona,” he says, “I had some money out. family my Flew homes. three rented and Gotnine whole chef.The yards.”a Olympi many all is accommodations free ans aspire to — a place to sleep that won’t impede their athletic performance. They dedicatedhave sacrificed, — really most — of their lives to the pursuit of athletic ex Clockwise from top left: The Vancouver canteen; an athlete’s suite; Andy Roddick and suite; an athlete’s canteen; top left: The Vancouver from Clockwise 2004 with his wife in Athens, finals in 2004; Gary Hall Jr. the swimming watch others go on to win four golds, lasted all of three histriedunpack Village.the toin He hours cleats, but there’d be a knock at the door.

------Howie Kahn wrote about surfing in Long Long in surfing about wrote Others leave because they’re simply too A few of the highest-profile athletes A social hierarchy exists in the Village. The American teams in Beijing were Not all Olympic Villages are created Alex French Alex Islandinthe August issue. 2011 issue. 2012 July the in Montreal about wrote so-called Dream Team (Dwyane Wade, Car (DwyaneWade, Team so-calledDream melo Anthony, etc.) bunked on the Queen accommodations — harbor Athens in 2 Mary bronze- their with scale of out seem that medalperformance. popular to stay. In Los Angeles who’d Lewis, Carl megastar in track American 1984, push a sled.pusha all,whileVillagethe at in live to not choose others get hotel rooms after they compete theycanso party withoutbeing babysatby the IOC. Bode Miller famously lived in a Athens,WinnebagoInthe trailer Turin. in see the Olympic Games as a nice great trip,with vacation a an buffet, all-you-can-eat ticketsfront-row to watch some of the real competitors,” says swimmer Gary Hall Jr., 10-timea medalist. And then there are the some like javelin throwa who ones the elite: that fast so sled a push or Homer of out thing people will actually travel to watch them Bulgarianbeingdivers overwhelmed or by a rowdy delegation of Egyptian wrestlers — but it could be that they just make the mostnoise. At the bottom are the “Olympic tourists,” those athletes who don’t have a realisticchance of winning a medal. “Some people advantage of free dental surgery, MRIs, and and MRIs, surgery, dental free of advantage house Cuban the in bumps Bass scans. CAT 24 hours a day; the Irish house, at least at the Beijing Games, was like a monastery. In terms of high-visibility partying,Australians, the Canadians, and Americansare always favored medalists — no one in thewith throwingterviewed down recalled piciouslybrawny that theteamU.S. wiped down toilet seats before sitting in order to avoid contact with topical steroids. Each scenes. common Village some hasOlympic for cigars of boxes sell Cubans Enterprising dollars.U.S. theAtVillage medical center, takecountries less-developed athletes from flew every national flag except the American American the flagexcept national every flew uni is Beijing and securityreasons, for one, versallyreferred toas the “no-fun Games.” warned not to drink the water. In Mexico women’s American the Atlanta, In too. City, touching avoid to instructed was team swim sus so were who swimmers, Chinese the dayssunbathing topless. equal. From the more than two dozen for for interviewed Olympians current and mer this story, a few common truths emerged: was,Barcelona predictably, (1992) a blast; Turin (2006) was remembered mostly for Athens mud. frozen and housing unfinished were available so athletesso availablepedalancould were to Olympians-only beach, where some of the top female world’s athletes spent their free Olympics in Salt Lake City, 100,000 con- rowing team was out there — they’re these doms were given away (though hot tubs were gorgeous, 6-foot-tall, 200-pound Amazo- removed in response to “excessive sexual nian beasts. They train harder than any- activity”). In Athens, the condom count in- body I’ve ever known. Their testosterone creased to 130,000. The first 70,000 went so levels are probably 10 to 20 times higher fast in Sydney that organizers had to order than the average woman’s. They’re aggres- 20,000 more. The Cuban delegation was sive; they’re grabbing your nuts. They get reportedly the first to burn through their a little drunk, and they’re doing stuff like allotment. Graham Richardson, mayor of an aggressive dude would do. Whistle at Sydney’s Village, reported that demand was one of these chicks — you might get laid. furious and that he witnessed female Olym- You’re walking down the hall in a towel — pians “rummaging around in a condom bowl after these girls have been training their for the right color and size.” asses off — you’ve got a six-pack, deltoids “They’re creating an environment where like cannonballs, and they see you — you’re they want to make sure it’s as safe as possible getting laid. It’s that simple.” to be promiscuous,” says Morgenstein. “You We could find only one country whose can’t keep all these athletes who have all this athletes had to sign a pre-Games agreement pent-up energy in one place for so long and to remain celibate. “Apparently the Canadian expect nobody’s going to hook up; it happens team was so poorly behaved in Barcelona in all the time. I’ve had clients break up with 1992,” says swimmer Casey Barrett, “that we boyfriends or girlfriends on the way to the had to sign an agreement, under oath, for Olympics because they know going to the Atlanta in 1996, that we wouldn’t engage Games that there’s no way they’re going to be in any sexual relations the entire time we able to stay committed. I’ve had athletes who were part of Team Canada. Apparently, it’s have shared that their significant other was a product of other people screwing up four In 2010, the Canadian women’s hockey there to cheer them on, and unfortunately, at team showed the world how to party. years earlier. It definitely made people from some point during their time in the Village, other countries pay more attention to us: they were with other people. The Olympic drinking as if someone was about to take ‘Oh, what about that contract?’ ” Allegedly, Village is sort of this Fort Knox of sleep, the alcohol away. That meant people getting after performing poorly, Team Canada broke sex, and eating.” seriously wasted, dancing on tables, and its pact with a big Canadian orgy. “That The bars around the Village swell to ca- hooking up with each other in plain sight.” was the rumor,” recalls Amy Van Dyken. pacity with bingeing jocks. In the clubs, Matthew Syed, a snaggle-toothed British “Everybody was, like, ‘Do not go near there. medals command attention, though not al- ping-ponger, who claims to have been laid Do not go near the Canadian dorm.’ ” ways admiration. Members of silver-winning twice during the Barcelona Games, writes Otherwise, there’s some sort of omertà relay teams show up with medals around that every interaction is sexually charged: in play (owing largely to the fact that many their necks, subtle as searchlights. “The “The women, too, seemed in thrall to their former Olympians don’t want their kids guys who are really high profile, collecting hormones,” he said in an article in The Times reading about who they hooked up with a bunch of gold on their own,” says Barrett, of London, “throwing around daring glances in Los Angeles in 1984, and many current “don’t need to do that. Girls already know and dynamite smiles like confetti. No meal Olympians don’t want to botch huge spon- who they are.” Girls certainly knew Italian or coffee break was complete without a sorship deals by acting like sex tourists). But secrets do leak: Australia’s lady swim- mers stripped on their Barcelona balcony. “You can’t keep all these athletes who have all this Prostitutes — allegedly signed in by an em- ployee of an American TV network — were pent-up energy in one place and expect nobody’s expelled from the Sydney Village. Uniden- tified female athletes at the Seoul Games going to hook up; it happens all the time. The Village put posters in their windows inviting male athletes up for “coffee.” That year, so many is sort of this Fort Knox of sleep, sex, and eating.” used condoms piled up on the roof terrace of the British team’s residential block that slalom king Alberto Tomba, who won five breathless conversation with a lithe long the British Olympic Association reportedly medals in four Olympics and was known jumper from Cuba or an Amazonian bad- had to explicitly ban outdoor sex. to travel with an entourage. U.S. ski-team minton player from Sweden, the mutual Sex isn’t the only preoccupation in the coach Johno McBride recalls Team Tomba longing so evident it was almost comical.” Olympic Village. Fast and strong and feel- setting up huge parties. “They’d have the One veteran Olympian boasts of the al- ing limitless, Olympians tend to take a shot whole back of this nightclub sort of roped leged prowess of the athletic set: “Sex is un- at petty theft as if it were a medal event off,” he says. “These people would be par- questionably a physical activity, so it stands — particularly if they’re stealing flags. tying like rock stars, and though there was to reason that Olympians, being the best at Speedskater Peter Mueller returned to this perception of Tomba as a playboy, sort physical activity, would be the best at sex.” his room in Lake Placid, in 1980, after a of ripping around parties every night, he According to Jasha Faye, a weightlifter who botched flag-napping attempt. His room- would have a sip of water and slip right out just missed making the Olympic team in mate, gold-medal-winning speedskater Eric the back door.” 1996, the correlation between athleticism Heiden, recalls Peter being “pretty blasted, Other Olympians get so drunk they need and sexual appetite is direct. “I lived at an swearing up and down, saying he just got to be dragged through the Village gates. In Olympic Training Center for four years. It’s caught stealing a flag by Barney Fife of the her new book, In the Water They Can’t See essentially the Olympic Village on a day-to- Lake Placid PD.” American swimmers Troy You Cry, Amanda Beard recalls going to a day basis. You get a lot of sexual deviancy. Dalbey and Doug Gjertsen were busted Sydney nightclub, where “the fittest, most We lived in coed dorms. You couldn’t turn after lifting a marble lion’s head from a focused folks in the world were knee deep in around without somebody showing you their Seoul hotel in 1988. hedonism,” she writes. “With low body fat boner. There was pornography everywhere. And Olympians occasionally light things

SCOTT AUDETTE/REUTERS /LANDOV and long periods of abstinence, they were There was a time when the U.S. women’s on fire. When a rower (continued on page 100)

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” ------Heiden lived in a while trailer he racked up liked the seclusion.” In Lake Placid in 1980, I race. next for the my thoughts gathering press. I could be in the Village and be gone, by public,”the Heiden,says Eric “or by the able to go somewhere I wouldn’t be pursued I’d“I found it be knowing nice Village. the secret. he his kept wanted to hold the blood in.” Even injured, water. the in I myself found then “and said, later thud,”he hollow big, this heard “I dive. qualifying a during springboard a on head his smacked but Seoul in golds been in allowed country.”that He won two have wouldn’t “I Louganis. says positive,” “Nobody could have ever known I was HIV diver. the to traced be couldn’t hours four every needed Louganis pills AZT the that so Korea South into medications his gled smug Ron O’Brien, coach, his safe, secret HIV.with had been diagnosed To keep his with secret. a time this — again isolated himself he found all expectations, the all honors, the attention, the all Despite Olympian. top world’s the perhaps as Seoul to went Lougan Montreal, in roommates byhis of that Village.” of that There’s nothing in the world like being part special, overwhelming place for any athlete. hind those gates,” says Barrett. “It’s the most you’rebe because “It’sall 2016. in bubble of Rio’sthe boundaries rainforest-inspired beyond just and years two in Sochi in and Games. Olympic for every there be they’ll of others, for the duration of those Games — waiting out there, for Barrett and thousandsremained they And name. his sign to rett Bar for waited and pen a him handed Fans denly at protecting worth the highest level. sud he was obscurity, in of training years who I was, but it was mind-blowing.” After my autograph,” he says. didn’t“They know luminary. “People up walked and asked for an international like treated being himself nonmedalist swimmer who suddenly found a Barrett, says Village,” I the left time first the remember “I the Olympian. up every for love turning of way a has exclusivity, the otherness that the provides,Village the celebrate.” one. go another We’dout, win go back and He’d trailer. at his have a they’d party win, would he time Each do. to thing natural the just was It talented. so handsome, so all his events because Eric was so adorable, to went “I says. she groupie,” Heiden Eric an became “I disappointment? that with withdraw,” shehow And says. did she deal “We to had injured. was her partner when Babilonia’s 1980 Games ended prematurely but a prison.” prison, high-security a very designed to become a prison,” he says. “Not being was Village “That medals. gold five Other athletes seek out the solitude of of solitude the out seek athletes Other Six months before the Games, Louganis They’ll be waiting in London this month But even while the competition goes on, Tai skater igure f pairs Meanwhile, MJ

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