Not only will the combined competitors, coaches, and staff at the Summer Games be consuming 800,000 eggs, they'll also be throwing down more than one million apples, 936,000 bananas, 312,000 oranges, and 684,000 carrots. Courtesy of the Olympic food provider Aramark, here's what else the group dining at the Beijing Athletic Village will be ingesting.

• 93,000 pounds of seafood
• 260,000 pounds of meat
• 38,000 pounds of pasta (dry)
• 134,000 pounds of rice (dry)
• 70,000 gallons of milk
• 400,000 boxes of cereal

In total, 28,000 Olympic folks will eat 3.5 million meals. Now, that's a lot of food. Fortunately, most of the crew will be burning their fair share of calories.

Source

Whether you have (or have had) dreams of participating in the Olympics or are simply interested in mixing up your fitness regime, it's fascinating to hear about the workouts Olympic athletes go through. For me, it not only helps me appreciate the effort it took for them to achieve that level of greatness, but it also inspires me to push harder in my workouts -- I might not be able to keep up with them, but I can try!

Lots of athletes have taken the opportunity to speak about their fitness routines, eating habits, and more. We've pulled a bunch of their information together, so to see what your favorite Olympian does to stay in shape, keep clicking the "Next" button!

Source

Pollution is a big deal for Olympians this year, mainly because there's just too much of it in Beijing. Athletes will need to worry about the effects of air quality on their performance, but not just in the way you think. Hockey players are concerned that the smog and haze will inhibit their ability to see the puck clearly. And so Britain's women's team is trying out an interesting technique -- red contact lenses.

The red lenses work like sunglasses and will help the women's eyes cut through the glare and focus more clearly. They'll also limit the amount of time the players spend squinting or frowning, which will help prevent headaches and tiring. But I think these contacts will have another effect on hockey -- intimidation. Can you imagine going face-to-face with an opponent whose eyes look like this? Creepy!

Source

BANG! The starter's gun begins, and the race and the runners are off. Though it's probably not visible to the casual observer, not all racers get started at the same time. Researchers have found that because sound takes time to travel, racers on the outside lanes actually hear the starting gun later than those on the inside lane and are at a distinct disadvantage.

OK, so maybe if you and I had a race, the difference wouldn't be significant. But in an Olympic race, where every athlete is elite, those 150 milliseconds can translate to up to a meter's difference between the runners -- a distance that can mean the difference between bringing home a gold or bringing home a silver medal.

Though officials are aware of the problem, no changes will be made for the Beijing Olympics. Experts say a low tone system is more fair to all runners than the loud gunshot, but it looks like this year's Olympians will just have to make do.

(photo credit: Library of Congress via pingnews on Flickr)

Source

An 8-year-old girl in China has recently completed a 3550-km (2200-mi) run from Hainan to Beijing, accompanied by her father on a bicycle alongside the little super-athlete. This might seem like an amazing feat but it's just another day for Zhang Huimin, who wakes up at 2:30AM most mornings to run the equivalent of one-and-a-half marathons -- 64 km, or 40 miles in total. The latest run was in an attempt to get noticed by the Olympics -- the girl wants to compete in the 2016 Olympics, when she will be 17.

Many people around the world are calling this child abuse -- what do you think? Her father, who is separated from her disapproving mother, says that Zhang Huimin likes running, and he denies that he is forcing her to run. Still, I think this amount of running is inhumane and unhealthy.

Source

While training for something as physically demanding as the Olympic Games is obviously a very healthy endeavor, fans of the events may find that, for spectators, just the opposite is true.

Beyond the fact that Beijing is riddled with pollution, the site within the city where most of the Games are being held suffers an usually high number of lightning strikes.

This year has already seen 499 deaths in China as result of lightning strikes, and, according to meteorologists, Beijing is more likely to be hit than other parts of the country. Add to that the fact that Haidan (home to many of the Olympic venues -- including many that are open air) is "among the high-frequency regions of natural lightning" within Beijing, and it starts to sound like a justified concern.

Officials are trying to combat pollution in Beijing by halving the number of cars on the road, but -- while it has certainly reduced pollution -- the measure has thus far been ineffective at removing the thick cloud of smog that hangs over the city.

Will any of this matter to a die-hard fan who's set on attending the Games? Probably not. But for those who are planning on traveling to Beijing, it's worth learning more about the effects of smog, and what you can do to minimize your risk.

Source