Cardboard beds are out. Coloring and plants are in.
Welcome to Milan’s Olympic village, which hosts roughly 1,500 athletes in dormitory-style rooms for this year’s Winter Games. The complex, which is home only to athletes, their coaches and some medical and security support staff, is typically off limits to the public. But The Athletic was among those able to tour it this week to see how some of the world’s best athletes are living this month in northern Italy.
It’s not hard to discern where each country’s athletes are clustered, because their respective flags hang from the balconies. There’s a giant red moose outside of the ground-floor elevators of Team Canada, and China has adopted a stuffed panda. Two four-story patriotic banners hang outside Team USA’s dorms with athlete rooms featuring a mini fridge, microwave, small bed and Italian-style bathroom complete with a separate bidet.
The much-maligned beds from the Tokyo Games in 2021 — which had flimsy cardboard frames — are gone, eliminating a popular complaint from athletes. Numerous Olympians have posted on social media about the beds, which appear to be crafted from a much more solid wood.
One of the biggest hits of the Milan village has been the adopt-a-plant program by Corona Cero, with multiple athletes naming their plants in honor of Shane Hollander or Ilya Rozanov, the two fictional gay hockey players of the HBO series “Heated Rivalry.” Athletes nurture the plants while they’re at the village and will get a pack of seeds when they leave to grow the same plant in their home country. (The Milan plants will be donated after the Games.)
There’s also a wooden, yurt-looking green space for athlete relaxation, as well as daily yoga, sound baths and a sunset celebration from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with live music. Athletes can engrave a golden bottle with their “golden moment” to take home as a souvenir.
More private meditation is available in the Powerade “Mind Zone,” which offers athletes a chance to send a postcard home or to decompress by coloring. The Coca-Cola recreation area is outfitted with foosball, air hockey, a photo booth and several TVs where athletes can lounge and watch live Games coverage. There’s also a wall of handwritten inspirational messages written by village residents, and mini-fridges stocked with multiple smoothie variations. There are multiple gaming rooms, with everything from “Call of Duty” to virtual dirt-bike racing.
The most popular spot for athletes to hang out is the dining hall, which, like the fitness center, is open 24 hours a day. The hall has multiple self-serve Caffe Vergnano 1882 coffee bars and chefs behind six stations, catering to all types of diets: vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free. This is Italy, so there is plenty of pasta and mozzarella, along with smoked meats and enough inventory for more than 4,000 meals daily.
Other Milan pop-ups include a makeup station from Kiko Milano and Procter & Gamble’s “Championship Clubhouse,” which offers hair washing and styling along with barbers. Every athlete gets swag bags, stuffed with free goodies highlighted by a special-edition Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 phone.
The gratis stuff is nice, but the best part about the village has always been the Olympic rings, where a line to pose with the five interlocking circles formed for most of Thursday afternoon, when The Athletic visited. Some athletes couldn’t resist a chance to show off their skills in front of the rings.
Others were moved to tears to be near the iconic rings, which are in the middle of the athlete’s courtyard, the spotlight exactly where it should be: on the spirit of the Games.