The Olympic Games have barely started, but the world’s athletes already owe a debt of gratitude to the host country.
More than a thousand years ago, the people of Italy developed a taste for the dried wheat noodles introduced to the region by Arab traders. Over the following centuries, Italians cultivated them until they became the globally beloved food known as pasta.
Today, Olympic athletes are among the most voracious consumers and biggest lovers of pasta, relying on this carbohydrate-rich food to fuel their performance goals. Even as the science of nutrition continues to evolve, pasta remains as ubiquitous in sport as lycra, as crucial to competitors as any energy drink.
It’s no surprise, then, that the prospect of gorging on carbs this month at the Winter Games in the spiritual homeland of pasta has left many Olympic athletes mouth-watering.
“I love pasta, so I’m super excited,” said Mystique Ro, 31, an American skeleton athlete. “Spaghetti is my favorite choice. Then there’s gnocchi. I also love fettuccine.”
Oh, I wish I had a fast metabolism and the work obligation of eating mountains of fettuccine!
At these Olympic Games, an impressive 600 kilograms of pasta will be served daily in the three cafeterias of the Olympic villages, according to Elisabetta Salvadori, head of food and beverage at the Italian Olympic organizing committee.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has revealed a unique pasta shape inspired by the Olympic rings. (Sorry connoisseurs: the IOC says the pasta is a “limited edition product not available for sale.”)
Restaurants are also jumping on the carb bandwagon: Miscusi in central Milan launched a special pasta dish for the Games (creamy gnocchi with mushrooms, kale and walnuts) and adopted a fun motto: “Eat pasta, ski faster!”
The best pasta of all time
Ask some Olympic athletes about their all-time favorite pasta, and their eyes light up.
Alex Hall, 27, who won a gold medal for the United States four years ago in slopestyle skiing, is one of them. He relies on the dough to sustain long training sessions in the mountains, sometimes even eating it for breakfast. He stated that his favorite pastas are tortellini and farfalle.
“Cook them quickly,” said Hall, whose mother is from Bologna, Italy. “Keep them al dente.”
Long ago, elite athletes consumed large amounts of protein — a huge steak, perhaps — immediately before competitions. This began to change in the 1960s, when a group of Swedish scientists discovered the effectiveness of carbohydrates as a fuel source.
The concept of “carbo-loading” was born, and pasta soon took the sports world by storm.
Tennis star Roger Federer ate pasta with light tomato sauce two hours before virtually every match of his career. The Boston Marathon used to host a pre-race pasta dinner at City Hall, while the New York City Marathon has held its own for years at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
This month, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hayward, Wisconsin, will host its traditional “spaghetti festival,” which opened in 1982, for participants in the American Birkebeiner, North America’s largest cross-country ski race.
“People come back for it two or three times,” said Mary Roles, 74, a volunteer who helped cook 43 pounds of dry pasta for 468 people last year. “Everyone leaves happy.”
Pre-race pasta has also become the butt of jokes: In an episode of NBC’s “The Office,” Michael Scott recklessly devours a huge container of fettuccine Alfredo before a 5-kilometer charity run.
For elite athletes, the carb overload of decades past has given way in recent years to a more subtle approach, said Hunter Baum, a nutritionist for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team, that could be called “carb-focused.”
“Now the approach is more evidence-based, practice-based and research-based: How can we target and schedule carbohydrate intake more effectively and strategically?” Baum said.
Disappointed chefs
As hordes of athletes arrive in northern Italy, Olympic organizers have adopted a “food as fuel” approach to dining halls. Part of that has meant accepting the fact that many of the top competitors prefer plain pasta with a little sauce on the side — almost blasphemy, like an afternoon cappuccino, in a nation of discerning epicures.
“This is surprising from an Italian point of view,” Salvadori said, trying to sound diplomatic. She had to break this news to local caterers in the Olympic villages who were hoping to showcase their culinary skills.
“They were a little upset, to be honest,” she said.
Athletes can still find traditional and more substantial dishes — lasagna, cacio e pepe, various types of ravioli — in the cafeterias, he added. Risotto and polenta, typical dishes from the Games’ host cities, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, are also well represented.
Furthermore, pasta’s worldwide appeal — and the basis of its popularity among athletes — may lie in its adaptability.
“It’s like a canvas on which you can express your own culture, your own taste, your own preferences,” said Fabio Parasecoli, a professor of food studies at New York University. “For the Italians, there are specific rules. But once the canvas is exported, it’s a kind of free-for-all.”
It’s worth noting that pasta’s recent history at the Olympics is not entirely appetizing.
Resi Stiegler, an American who competed in alpine skiing at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, harshly criticized the pasta served in the Olympic village, calling it “horrible.”
Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, told reporters at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that he had eaten “almost a pound of spaghetti” as part of his post-pool recovery routine.
“And I’m not a fan of spaghetti,” he said. “I forced myself to eat.”
An Olympic test of willpower
There are, of course, other delicious ways for athletes to get their carbs. At the Summer Olympics two years ago in Paris, Kenyan competitors took ugali, a staple cornmeal dough dish. The Irish came with boxes and boxes of oatmeal.
“We eat a lot of pho,” said Chris Plys, 38, an American curler.
But pasta is king.
Derek Parra, an American speed skater who won two medals at the 2002 Games, fondly remembers a visit to Padua, Italy, in 1996 for the World Speed Skating Championships. The night before his first event, he visited a local restaurant and tried tortellini carbonara.
“The next day I won a gold medal,” he said, laughing, “so I came back every night.”
Jake Adicoff, 30, a Paralympic cross-country skier from the United States, recalled taking a cooking class as a child while on vacation with his family in Italy. They learned how to make pasta and ceci, a chickpea stew, and now he makes it with Ditolini (a short, tubular pasta) for his teammates.
“It’s got a lot of vegetables, protein and carbs, and it’s really easy to make,” he said. “It’s a great winter dish.”
With all this delicious food around, some foodie athletes might need to show some willpower in Italy.
Jason Brown, an American figure skater, is such an aficionado of Italian food that he diverted a family trip to Greece last summer to Rome for a full day of gastronomic extravaganza. The itinerary included a stop at Ristorante Pietro Valentini, whose truffle gnocchi, he said, was “to die for.”
Brown, 31, plans to hold his own during these Games. In the midst of competition, he prefers homemade smoothies prepared with a blender he carries in his luggage.
But when his events are over, he said, laughing, “I load up on carbs like crazy.”
