Report: Olympic athletes to be housed in “Stalag Beijing”

This week’s newsletter from the market research firm Access Asia — whose client list includes heavy hitters like Citigroup, Pfizer, and Nike — contains an interesting description of the living conditions athletes can expect at the Beijing Olympic Village, likening the facility to a prisoner of war camp: If you’re an athlete coming to compete in Beijing, ...

By Mike Boyer

May 23, 2008, 5:49 PM

This week's newsletter from the market research firm Access Asia -- whose client list includes heavy hitters like Citigroup, Pfizer, and Nike -- contains an interesting description of the living conditions athletes can expect at the Beijing Olympic Village, likening the facility to a prisoner of war camp:

This week’s newsletter from the market research firm Access Asia — whose client list includes heavy hitters like Citigroup, Pfizer, and Nike — contains an interesting description of the living conditions athletes can expect at the Beijing Olympic Village, likening the facility to a prisoner of war camp:

If you’re an athlete coming to compete in Beijing, don’t bother to bring a guidebook unless you’re tenacious. The chances of you actually getting out of the Olympic Village to see any of the city (apart from the venue you’re competing in) are minimal….

How serious will the Chinese authorities be in trying to keep athletes within the Village at all times? Well, consider that a major European sports brand and sponsor of the Games thought it a good idea to take over a major international school in Beijing for the duration of the Games. Using the school’s facilities, the brand’s management and marketing people, advertising firm and PR hypers had all planned to mingle with their star athletes’ endorsers and get the most out of the event. But now the authorities, worried about athletes leaving the Village unnecessarily, have overruled the deal, and won’t let it happen (which means the brand loses the alleged US$1.5 million they coughed up to rent the school for a month). We are told that security at the Village will be high – not just to get in, but also to get out.

So why turn the village into Stalag Beijing? Well, it seems there are a number of reasons. Worries that athletes may leave the Village to do impromptu reporting on human rights or other issues is one; keeping them all close to the people who are sponsoring the Village is another; but the major reason is that if they leave the Village they may be tempted to eat like the rest of us – i.e. not the specially prepared, reared and grown foods that are being made available in the Village (and in the Village only) – and that could mean plenty of athletes failing dope tests due to high levels of residual antibiotics and steroids commonly found in meat on sale in China. "

Ah, but many U.S. athletes already had this figured out and are planning to bring their own food. This is much to the chagrin of Beijing organizers, who are planning to ban outside food within the Olympic Village. As for speaking ill of China’s human rights record, the gag orders — which some athletes will be forced to sign as a precondition of competing — should pretty much take care of that. Sounds like a lovely time indeed.

[Hat tip: Tim Johnson]