From The Scotsman, 4 years ago (a link I found again while re-reading the archives of Casey and Andy):
"Every athlete who goes to the Games is intimately familiar with what a life of training and genetic culling does to people in his sport," says Terry Kent, an American Olympic kayaker who competed in LA, Seoul and Barcelona. "Everybody has been trying to achieve a freak-of-nature status just a little bit more extreme than the next guy. But when you’re thrown into the village you are suddenly confronted with a cornucopia of ultra-honed bodies twisted by the demands of sport."
Kent remembers sitting in the village, watching athletes walk through the door and playing a game of Guess What They Do. "The bikers have skinny little upper bodies, farmer tans and massive, clean-shaven thighs. Invert them and you get the kayakers, who have skinny little legs and massive backs and shoulders. The seven-foot-tall giant who ducks under the doorway entering the cafeteria is probably from basketball. The seven-foot giant who smacks his head on the door frame is definitely a rower; they don’t have that hand-eye co-ordination thing. The kids running at the rowers’ ankles with the high-pitched voices are gymnasts. It just goes on and on. Being at the village is like taking your place in a wild anatomical parade seen nowhere else on the planet."
Also? They fuck like bunnies.
In other sports news, my disappointment at France performing so badly against Romania tonight was only tempered by Italy getting absolutely thrashed by Holland. To an inveterate Italian-national-football-team hater like me, the two sublime counter-attacking goals from Holland were only made better by the fact that they were made possible by Italy having to chase the game after the first Dutch goal, which was blatantly offside.
