What is an Olympic Village?

Introduction

An Olympic village is an accommodation facility built by organizers for the Olympic Games. Its location is within an Olympic Park in the city where the Olympics will take place. The primary purpose for the Olympic village is to house all participants of the Olympics including trainers to athletes to the officials. After the Munich Massacre which occurred during the 1972 Olympics in Germany, the safety of the Olympic villages became critical. The press and media that cover the events of Olympics do not have access to the Olympic villages. The only people who can access the Olympic villages are athletes, Olympic officials, trainers, former Olympic athletes, and specific family members of athletes who have undergone thorough security checks.

History

Pierre de Coubertin came up with the idea of setting up Olympic villages. A sample Olympic village came to light at the Summer Olympic Games in 1924. During the Olympics, the hosts built cabins around the venue of the event. Athletes used these cabins which were convenient for them since they were near the Olympics stadium. Before the use of Olympic villages, the National Olympic Committee used to incur very high costs in renting houses for the athletes, trainers, and Olympics officials. Later on in the 1932 Summer Olympics, the hosts built the first Olympic Village that formed a model used for the present-day Olympic Villages.

Lifestyle in Olympic Villages

Hedonism is the belief that humans exist to derive the most pleasure in life. The Olympic Villages exhibit hedonistic lifestyles among athletes during the Olympics. Acts such as casual sex together with copious amounts of alcohol consumptions are common. During the 2004 Olympic Games held in Sochi, the host provided the 6,000 athletes who attended the event with 100,000 free condoms. On the other hand, London provided 150,000 condoms during the 2012 Olympics. One of the most interesting scenarios that ever happened was during the Sydney Olympics where the 70,000 condoms provided ran out during the games. The hosts had to add 20,000 more condoms.

Examples of Olympic Villages

Los Angeles, USA built the first Olympic village in the Baldwin Hills in 1932. The village hosted male athletes only. Chapman Park Hotel, located on Wilshire Boulevard, accommodated the female athletes. The Baldwin Hills Olympic village consisted of a fire department, telegraph and post offices, a bank, a hospital, and an amphitheater. Los Angeles, the hosts, dismantled the Olympic village right after the Olympic Games.

Another example of an Olympic Village was for the 1936 Olympics. The village consisted of one and two story apartment buildings in Berlin. It had a sauna, swimming pool, a hospital, and an indoor arena. Unlike the Los Angeles Olympic Village, the Berlin Olympic village later became an army barrack for almost 50 years.

Amongst all the Olympics Villages ever built, the Youth Olympic Village in Villa Soldati, Buenos Aires may turn out to be the largest. The building will have 1,440 new apartments located in 32-storey buildings. It will occupy an area of 160,000 square meters. The event organizers are preparing to host 7,500 people.