Welcome to Team GB’s Milan base: TV, games, popcorn and 5,000 teabags
Team GB’s athletes at the Winter Olympics will be fuelled by 130kg of Quaker porridge oats, 5,000 Aldi teabags and a Formula One simulator.The Guardian was given rare access to the team’s base at the Olympic Village in Milan, where 10 of their 55 athletes, including the figure skaters Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear, are staying.The rooms are cramped, just about big enough to fit two single beds, but Team GB is attempting to make athletes feel more at home with a large TV showing BBC One, jigsaw puzzles and Connect 4.There are huge supplies of popcorn, coffee and fruit pastilles.Team GB’s deputy chef de mission, Anne Sargent, said the team had also brought in sofas, stationary exercise bikes and a room for doctors and physios.
“When we take over our spaces in the village, it’s just a completely empty room,” she said.“We work hard to ship out a lot of entertainment, snacks, the TV and games to make it a real home from home.”At the Paris Games there were complaints from British athletes about the lack of meat in the village.Sargent said there had been no such problems this time around.“The food’s been brilliant,” she said.
“There’s everything we’d want in the dining hall: porridge at breakfast and loads of meat at dinner.”When athletes walk around the village, they can also use a large gym, play table football and air hockey and even play the piano.There are also free drinks machines, stacked with Coca-Cola and Innocent smoothies.The British skater Ellia Smeding did identify one thing that was missing: high‑quality coffee.“We’re going to scope out some good coffee shops,” she said.
“I’m much more into filter coffee, a good pourover, fruity flavours, light.I do enjoy good cappuccino, but good pourovers are my thing.”There are also signs on the walls that warn Team GB athletes: “Take Hygiene Seriously! Germs are everywhere, don’t let them compete.” Athletes are told to close the toilet lid before they flush, cough and sneeze into their elbows, and to clean their hands regularly.As one sign puts it: “Be Safe.
Be Smart.Protect the Team”.It is a far cry from the Beijing Winter Games, when British athletes were tested daily for Covid and not to mix with other teams.The first athletes begin their Olympic campaigns on Wednesday with the mixed curling.Britain’s team of Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds, who are second favourites behind Canada, start with a group match against Norway.
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Welcome to Team GB’s Milan base: TV, games, popcorn and 5,000 teabags
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