Beijing Winter Olympics Experiences of Australian Sport Dietitians
By Siobhan Crawshay & Beccy Hall
Rebecca is an accredited sports dietitian currently working with the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA), servicing many of the Winter athletes on a day-to-day basis. With a keen interest in Snow Sports, Bec has been a fabulous addition to the Team over the last 3 years. Siobhan has been the Lead sports dietitian at OWIA since 2012, servicing athletes and managing the nutrition services at the last three Winter Games. Both travelled to China for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, and enjoyed all the challenges and adventures that came with running a food service for our Australian Team.
Tell us about your role at the Olympics
Our role at the Beijing Winter 2022 Olympics was to support our Australian athletes and coaches with food provision in and around their competition and training. We are both sport dietitians with the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) alongside our fabulous colleague Ali Miles. 
There were 3 main villages at the Beijing games: Yanqing, Beijing and Zhangjiakou. Aussie athletes were spread across all three villages depending on their events. The Beijing village housed a small number of Australian athletes competing in ice sports (figure skating, curling, speed skating), while just under 10 athletes were based at the Yanqing village for competition in alpine ski events. The majority of our athletes competed in ski and snowboard events and were based at the Zhangjiakou village, where at any one time, we were feeding up to 60 people (approximately 35 athletes, plus coaches and other staff).
Whilst the Beijing Winter Olympics had athlete dining halls set up in all villages, we wanted to offer our athletes the opportunity to eat closer to ‘home.’ This minimised the need for them to head out in the -20deg Celsius conditions before having to be outdoors for extended periods for their events. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we also
wanted to offer the option to minimise visits to the athlete dining hall, if so desired. We did this by setting up a ‘Grab and go’ pantry for each Aussie village accommodation site with simple breakfast options as well as a large variety of ready-to-eat soups, meals, and snacks.
These very popular wholefood options were paired with a selection of performance supplements (batch-tested for safety) for athletes to utilise, as planned with their dietitian.
In the Aussie Zhangjiakou accommodation, we also provided a full meal service of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Our athletes, their coaches, and anyone who was keen to maximise rest and recuperation time could stay in the Aussie accommodation and enjoy familiar meals and snacks in the team environment. This was only possible because Siobhan (the OWIA lead dietitian) worked closely with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) in the 12 months leading into the winter games. Siobhan and her assistants ordered and packed all the long-shelf-life food provisions and kitchen equipment required to pull off such a challenging logistic feat!
What were the main challenges?
Setting up a kitchen in a room that isn’t built as a kitchen is always challenging, and this was no exception. We had some challenges with installing our own kitchen sink and cooking everything from electric fry pans, portable ovens, camping hot plates, and rice cookers. We were incredibly lucky with the broader OWIA team, all of whom were happy to share
their extended skills as plumbers, electricians, butchers, and expert dish washers.
We took extra precaution with food safety, sanitizing all our fresh fruit and vegetables. The reality of these many steps was that even the simple things, like a salad, took a long time to prepare.
Food storage was made harder by the fact that the large fridge/freezers we ordered did not arrive. Thank goodness the cold winter weather solved that problem! We had a large “fridge” in the form of a basement storage room that remained below -5 degrees Celsius at all times.
In the main building the heated floors caused some hiccups. Some food items that were stored close to the floor would melt. For example, chocolate melted into the trail mix. What a mess!
The temperatures and conditions outside were a challenge. Many athletes and staff spent extended periods outside for competition, equipment preparation, or surveying a course and they welcomed warm foods and beverages. We had to think about hot food options for them that could be easily transported.
How was food provision to the athletes managed?
We had a fabulous official team of 3 in the kitchen with AOC legend Bianca Howard joining from the beginning with her amazing cooking prowess. As a team, we planned the menus based on what fresh ingredients were available. We also tried to honor any specific food requests from those athletes who were competing. We had several staple items that we offered daily, and we provided a varied menu of hot main meals. On request we also packaged up meals and snacks for athletes and staff to take with them to events.
We really had great uptake of these offerings and were just very lucky to have minimal waste of food with literally only a few nights where there were any leftovers at all. We also need to say a very big thank you to those in the athlete dining hall who supported us throughout the games with bread and sauce provisions (sweet chilli, tomato sauce, and olive oil) when supplies ran low. Fresh bread especially was hard to get!
Providing a full meal service in a makeshift kitchen was challenging and logistics of food preparation meant long days in the kitchen. However, all athletes and coaches were very grateful to have the option to come home to a relaxed environment and a hot meal with their teammates. They also took advantage of the dumplings on offer at the athlete village dining hall as a post-competition reward! We hope that the meal provision gave our Aussie team that bit more opportunity to relax, prepare, and feel ready to perform.
Sample menu
Breakfast: Vorny’s Bircher muesli with fresh berries and yoghurt, boiled eggs with toast, a range of fresh fruit, selection of Australian cereals and yoghurt pots.
Lunch: Sweet potato and lentil soup with wraps: ham, cheese and relish or egg, spinach and mayo or chicken, spinach, and mayo.
Afternoon tea: Fruit and dairy smoothies
Dinner: Moroccan lamb and vegetable tagine OR Bush spiced tofu and chickpeas with couscous and steamed greens
Dessert: Apple crumble with custard
Barista made fresh coffee on demand, selection of black and herbal teas, Milo, hot chocolate, chai, a variety of milk and milk alternatives and fruit juice.
