Deputy de mission aims to create ‘home from home’
Exercise bikes and an F1 simulator also at the base
Team GB’s athletes at the Winter Olympics will be fuelled by 130kg of Quaker porridge oats, 5,000 Aldi teabags and a Formula One simulator. The Guardian was given rare access to the team’s base at the Olympic Village in Milan, where 10 of their 55 athletes, including the figure skaters Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear, are staying.
The rooms are cramped, just about big enough to fit two single beds, but Team GB is attempting to make athletes feel more at home with a large TV showing BBC One, jigsaw puzzles and Connect 4. There are huge supplies of popcorn, coffee and fruit pastilles.
Team GB’s deputy chef de mission, Anne Sargent, said the team had also brought in sofas, stationary exercise bikes and a room for doctors and physios. “When we take over our spaces in the village, it’s just a completely empty room,” she said. “We work hard to ship out a lot of entertainment, snacks, the TV and games to make it a real home from home.”
