Eat like an Olympic athlete

Want to know what the US Olympic athletes ate during the Games? Here’s a brief video showing Alison Leach, site manager for the Whistler USA House gives us a view of the lunch that is being prepared for athletes and visitors. The food was prepared by the chef who helped create President Obama’s inaugural meal.

My friend Amber Johnson of the Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck was lucky enough to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver as a Microsoft Office Gold Metal Blogathlete. She had the chance to  interview Terri Moreman, the associate director of food and nutrition services at the Winter Games and the manager of dining services for the U.S. Olympic Committee

Here are some of the highlights from her interview:

• During the Olympics, Terri worked at the Delta Hotel near the Vancouver airport, overseeing 1,500 meals per day.
• There were seven chefs in various Olympic training centers feeding the teams. They served about 6,300 meals in 21 days.
• Terri fed 216 athletes per day.
• There were also four chefs in West Vancouver, serving three houses. Whistler had two houses, two chefs and two dieticians.
• Tyson was a sponsor and provides them with chicken, beef and pork.
• They also brought 2,500 pounds of products for the athlete’s meals.
• McDonald's donated 350 dozen eggs, frozen fruit for smoothies, and Canadian bacon. (Or as it’s called in Canada, “back bacon”!)
• Three athletic training facilities (Colorado Springs, Lake Placid, and San Diego) serve 800,000 meals per year.
• The most popular items at the Games were carbs and proteins like beef, chicken, and fish. Many of the athletes loved the Pad Thai nights, too! They also served low fat desserts as well as cakes, Jell-O, and pudding.
• Terri loved that food services helped get the athletes to the winner’s podium.

Amber also reported back that many restaurants in Vancouver had “themed” nights. For example, Monday was a Polish food, Tuesday was a German food, and so on.

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Posted on March 8, 2010 in Inspiration

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