Sara In Rio: Thursday August 11, 2016: Visiting the Village

Today was our day to head up to the Olympic Village, the home to all the athletes of the Games (or, at least most of them… Basketball players stay on a cruise ship, and other high-profile athletes/sports pay for their own fancy hotels closer to venues, i.e. Beach Volleyball). We (Gary and I) rode over to Flamengo and then were able to secure a private ride to drive us up there. It only took about 35 minutes, completely different from all the horror stories of the normal transport up there. We met up with Kacie (my real boss) to work with her for the day and catch up on various cases, and have her show us around. We toured around the compound apartments assigned to the USA and saw all the Athletes lounges, medical set-up, recovery room, staff offices, and the “apartments” that staff and athletes slept. It was helpful to see the set-up of the village, and the rooms, since that would be my home during the Paralympics, next month.

The building itself was about 30 stories high, and in total in the Village, there were at least 20 of those high-rises. The Village was its own little city. 10,500 athletes compete at the Games, so there were rooms for them all here. On top of that, was all the staff from the USOC and each sport, and medical, etc. I believe the Village has accommodations for 18,000 people. Aka massive. The dining hall is about the size of two football fields, no joke. The Village offers a large entertainment/hang out area, post office, general store, many lounge areas, a skate park, tons of training venues, a two mile running path around the village, a Rio store, salons, and complete with the infamous Village McDonalds that is found in every athlete village at every Olympic Games (a wise food choice for elite athletes...). However, the McDonalds is packed at all hours, with a huge 30 minute line that athletes crowd in. We had to experience it (Mom, please don’t get mad over that!) because it’s the thing you have to do at the Village. I did get a salad (swear) and of course snuck a couple chicken nuggets and fries that a group of us shared.

We were able to get a good amount of work done all together before heading out on a 4:10 bus that would take us to another USA Training Venue called Lonier (another training venue just like Flamengo that is set up for various sports to train at). Sports like wrestling, archery, fencing, and taekwondo were stationed there for daily workouts. The athletes still stayed in the Village, this was just the place they would have daily workouts. Lonier is very close to the Village, making it quite convenient. Lonier is different than Flamengo because it also houses a good number of staff. Lonier is usually a location for various kid summer camps, for those in-need, and most commonly used as a soccer camp. There is also a swimming pool, and a few waterslides. The USOC spent a good amount of money on renovations on this location—for our athletes, and also as a charitable endeavor to upgrade for the future kids in Rio that come from nothing.

Although I wanted to look around Lonier more, we could only stay for about 5 minutes because a couple other people had a private car back down to the beach area, with room for Gary and I to jump into. Definitely worth it to jump in with them. We had to do a slight detour on the way to drop one of the people off, but then we were on our way. The car would take us to USA House, which is located in Ipanema, the beach adjacent to Copacabana and only like a 15 minute uber back to our hotel (normally). Remember now, we left Village at 4:10pm, and it was probably 15-20 minutes max to Lonier. 5 minutes there (if that). We didn’t get to USA House until 6:20pm. Traffic. Traffic. Traffic. The ride home started with views of the gorgeous Barra beaches and then transfixed into a Favella covering an entire mounting. 50,000 people lived in the Favella in front of us, our driver told us. And just one main road at the bottom. Everyone in these communities have the barest of barest amenities, and I don’t think sewage is one of them… Thousands of families who call a broken-down and battered city, home. Just a few short miles from the million-dollar ocean front properties.

Remember again, it only took us 35 minutes to get up to the Village. Once we got to the USA House, we grabbed an uber (only a 10-minute wait for the car to arrive). Then, the normal 15 min uber ride back to our hotel from that location took an HOUR. We left at 4:10pm and didn’t get back to our hotel until 7:30pm.

Some of our co-workers were out for a quick dinner just around the corner from our hotel, so we joined them immediately, without even stopping in our rooms to put our stuff down after we were let off in front of the hotel. Although the Village is a marvel of a creation, I’d have to say that you can’t really beat Copacabana area, sipping a beer with good friends, and in a hotel room with the view of the Christo. Different from the Village, where I will be staying in a month, but my haven for now.