Brazil building at Olympic Village provides convenience for athletes

In the 31 apartment towers at the Olympic Village in Rio, some of the sports delegations are using only one floor, whereas others take up an entire building. With 465 athletes, Team Brazil is one of the delegations that will have a dedicated 17-storey tower to accommodate them. About 200 Brazilian athletes have already moved into the village, a group that may grow in August 10-14 as the swimming team checks out and athletics comes in.

For greater athlete convenience, the facilities include a number of amenities, including a living room, a cafeteria, medical offices, biochemical laboratories, meeting rooms, and even video editing rooms, where all the games footage is available for coaches in each discipline. From podiatrists to gynecologists, 45 service providers monitor athletes and assess their health on a daily basis, and may even advise if they are training too hard or could improve their performance.

Adriana Behar, Sports Planning Manager for Brazil's Olympic Committee, and an Olympic medalist herself, says all these resources “encourage integration” between athletes competing in different sports. She instanced the living room video games, which have become popular among women footballers. The room gets busier at night, when many athletes have returned from their workouts and training sessions. Open from 8am to 8pm, it is complete with couches and areas to relax and hang out with other athletes.

The accommodations for Team Brazil are among the best ever provided to athletes, according to Behar. Rooms are all en suite and can be shared by a maximum of two people, ensuring privacy and hassle-free daily schedules. Athletes in the same discipline will usually share apartments.

Handball player Thiagus explained that the men's team has filled up two apartments, five bedrooms each. He says that during the athletes' free time, when they are not resting after training sessions or chilling out at the living room, they love to walk or ride a bicycle around the village on one of the loan bikes available there. But because the training routines are physically taxing, rest is the top priority.

The onsite medical laboratory is expected to handle at least 2,000 tests during the Olympics, with blood and urine tests completed within 15 minutes to assess the physical integrity of the athletes before and after training sessions. The tests are nutritional only, designed for metabolic analysis, not intended for doping control. “We focus on adjustments that can be made through nutritional supplementation,” said Jorge Bichara, Deputy Head of Mission.

Translated by Mayra Borges

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