Olympians Spill Village Secrets

With London 2012 close on the horizon, an anonymous female athlete has apparently been spilling all the dirty secrets from Olympic Villages past. “What happens in the Village stays in the Village,” the US Olympian tells the New York Post. And what happens for many competitors at the world's most prestigious sports event is said to consist of sex, drugs and booze. Though alcohol and drugs are banned from Olympic villages, the athletes still find a way to sneak it in. “When I’m there, I’m in two different gears,” says. “I’m so focused that I see nothing else, or I’m partying my butt off.” The villages are said to divide into two groups: the elite, who train and abstain from partying, and the others. Who don’t. “At the Olympic Village, they call it ‘Days of Glory,’” says the source. “You stay up all night and party, and you wait for McDonald’s to start serving breakfast at 4:30 in the morning. You eat, sleep, then get up at 9 or 10 am for press, and then you start partying all over again. The “lesser” athletes, of whom fewer physical demands are made, have the biggest boozing reputation: “Curlers are known for drinking. The sport doesn’t require that much.” Another unusual US Olympic tradition is getting so wasted the night before the post-games trip to the White House that you're still drunk as you shake hands with the president. “It’s a sobering experience, knowing you were still drunk at 5 am and are on a bus by 7 to meet the president at 10,” says US Nordic Combined Athlete Todd Lodwick. “When the Games are over, I’m in peak drunk state.”