What is being called the “world’s largest restaurant” will be unveiled at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games to feed more than 24,000 athletes, coaches and officials from about 200 countries.
Doug Warner of Aramark, the Philadelphia-based company that has catered for the last 13 Olympics, said, “at the last Games in Athens the dining space was the size of three American football pitches and we could feed 6,000 people at any one time”, reports the Times.
Jeanette Crosland, consultant dietician to the British Olympic Association (BOA) for the Athens Games, said, “everyone will be on different time schedules depending on whether they are training, competing or resting, and a rower or a shot-putter will have very different nutritional needs to, say, a gymnast”.
The newspaper quotes Wendy Martinson, nutritionist for the BOA as saying, “it is vital that we are involved at the early stages of planning because diet is becoming more and more important in terms of an athlete’s ability to do well”.
The catering tenders have not yet been considered for the Beijing and London Summer Games.
Meanwhile, London 2012 officials now say a Premiership football team such as West Hampton or Chelsea may be allowed to move into the Olympic Stadium once the Games are over, reports the Daily Mail.
London’s bid 2012 organizers had always insisted the Olympic Stadium would be reduced in capacity to 25,000 people and used as a venue for athletics.
But Monday London 2012 head Sebastian Coe said “we have never ruled out a Premiership club but we have always made it very clear that a legacy for track and field is a serious part of an Olympic Games in London. We have soldiered on far too long with a facility (Crystal Palace), which is not fit for purpose. We aim to bring major events to this country and how we settle on a legacy for this stadium is under review at the moment. No doors are open and no doors are closed”.
