Excited for the upcoming Olympics? While you may have a favorite athlete in mind or a specific team you’re rooting for, there is actually a lot more that goes into preparing for the Olympic Games than working out and training. To give you a better idea, here are 20 things you probably didn’t know about the upcoming Olympic games:
There will be 26 featured sports from 39 disciplines
The games will encompass 34 venues
There have been 8.8 million tickets sold
There will be 10,500 athletes competing
21,000 media and broadcasters will be present
There will be 3,000 technical officials
There will be 7,500 team officials
One million pieces of sports equipment are being sourced by LOCOG
510 adjustable hurdles are being setup for Athletics
600 basketballs will be used
541 life jackets will be used for Canoeing, Marathon Swimming, Rowing, Sailing and the Triathlon
2,200 dozen tennis balls will be used for the games
There will be 2,700 footballs used
53 sets of lane ropes will be set up for Swimming
There will be 6,000 Archery target faces used
For Boccia, 22 tape measures will be necessary
356 pairs of Boxing gloves will be needed for the games
There will be 12 pairs of goalposts used for handball
120 head protectors will be needed for Taekwondo
For Wrestling and Judo, 99 training dolls will be needed
375 doctors will be on hand, as well as 150 nurses, 200,000 pairs of gloves and 150,000 condoms
165,000 towels 22,000 pillows will be on hand in the Olympic Village accommodation
For Games Maker uniforms, 766 miles of fabric will be necessary
Click here for more information about the London Olympics.
While traveling through Brazil, I discovered a new sport I had never seen before, but one I’d definitely love to try. The sport was created in 1965 on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, as a way for football (soccer) players to be able to practice their skills without violating the terms of the formal football ban that was going on. It is similar to volleyball in that points are awarded to the opposing team when the one team “drops” the ball. To make the game a bit more challenging, there are only two players from each team allowed on the court at one time. While the sport is most popular in Brazil, it has gained international attention and is also played in the United Kingdom, Israel, Paraguay, Asia and the United States.
For a better idea of how the game is played, check out the above clip of a Footvolley match being played on Leblon Beach in Brazil.
Most children don’t dream of selling cheese or hacking apart animal carcasses when they grow up, but it’s a popular fantasy for many adults. Like most romantic-sounding culinary vocations, making craft foods and beverages can be hard work, and a risky business enterprise. “No matter how passionate someone is about their product,” says Heidi Yorkshire, founder of Portland, Oregon’s Food by Hand Seminars, “without business skills, they’ll never survive.”
Yorkshire, a small business consultant and former food and wine writer, was inspired to launch Food by Hand in 2009 because she saw a niche. “Our courses are mini-apprenticeships in running a sustainable business.” Past curricula have included butchery and craft distilling.
Food by Hand offers two-to-three-day intensives that teach the “craft and business of artisan food.” While the courses are designed for prospective business owners, they’re open to anyone wanting to know more about handcrafted foods.
[Photo credit: Flickr user mystuart]Food by Hand has an artisan cheese program that teaches everything from tasting, buying, storage and shop design to creating a business plan. The course is led by esteemed Portland cheesemonger Steve Jones, the son of a Maytag Dairy herdsman. Additional instructors include an expert on business planning and a tax specialist.
Jones has been in the business for over 17 years and is now on his second retail cheese venture, Portland’s Cheese Bar. He’s an industry badass and the winner of the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational (yes, it really does exist and let me tell you, as a cheesemonger, it’s a pretty intense occupation and competition).
Food by Hand’s fourth annual seminar on The Craft and Business of Retailing Artisan Cheese will be held in Portland from May 30-June 2, 2012, and costs $1,795 per person; a $1,595 early enrollment tuition fee is available if paid in full by April 1. Click here for details on how to register.
In Spokane, Washington, Dry Fly Distilling’s aptly named Distilling School teaches their “farm to bottle” ethos (they use only locally, sustainably-grown raw ingredients in their vodka, gin, bourbon and whiskey) in two-day and one-week courses designed to “provide a variety of hands-on training opportunities to aspiring distillers.”
Opening in Oakland’s Jack London Square in April is the Food Craft Institute. Supported by sponsors and partnerships with some of the Bay Area’s most renowned artisan food organizations, farmers and food artisans (some of whom are also the instructors) the new school aims to “reinvigorate the creation and success of artisan food craft business in the U.S. through a combination of…training courses steeped in technical techniques along with a rigorous entrepreneurship program.”
It’s easy to poke fun at the overuse of words like “artisan” and “handcrafted,” and even I cringe when I hear naifs dreamily speak of quitting their six-figure tech jobs and buying a goat dairy. The reality is that unless you put in the hard time doing internships and learning the business end of things — and that’s assuming you have real, honest-to-god talent and passion — you’re not going to succeed at any food business. Having seed money or disposable income doesn’t equal good product.
On the positive side, my former employer, a Seattle cheesemonger, did her homework and spent two years interning, developing a business plan and taking Jones’ workshop as well as making him her mentor. Her business has been a success from day one. If you’re serious about getting (food) crafty, you can run a viable business. Just don’t think it’s going to be easy.
Kickstarter and incubator kitchens such as San Francisco’s La Cocina have helped many craft food businesses get off the ground. If you’re considering a career in this industry, I highly recommend these and similar programs as resources. And don’t forget: craft foods make excellent travel souvenirs.
[Photo credit: lamb, Laurel Miller; cheese, Flicker user Mitchmaitree]
Why start a craft food business? Because you “can pickle that.”
Every other year, Mexico hosts their Nautical Extravaganza, a month filled with classic sailing and water sport competitions that take you to different Mexican cities. This year, the event kicked off on March 2 with the 30th Biennial San Diego to Vallarta Yacht Club race, which consists of sailors navigating their boats over 1,000 miles from San Diego, California, to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.
If you weren’t at the kick-off, no need to be upset, as the month is still young. Because the London Olympics are coming up, the most anticipated contest of the event is the Regatta Mexico Cup 2012 Olympic Edition, which includes seven sailing divisions and features over 1,500 international athletes, many of whom are preparing for the official summer Olympics.
For those who aren’t into sailing, the event also includes windsurfing, kite surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, whale watching, and beach volleyball as part of the fun. If you’re competitive, the Punta Sayulita Longboard and Stand-Up Paddle Classic will kickoff on March 9 in the picturesque surf village of Sayulita. The event attracts visitors and professional athletes from all over the world who come to enjoy the talent and scenery, partake in beach events, and also raise money for charity.
For more information on the competitions and events still to come this month in the Nautical Extravaganza, click here.
While America has baseball, New Zealand has rugby, and Australia has cricket, Turkey has a national pastime that some may find a bit odd– oil wrestling. Also known as “grease wrestling,” the sport involves men clad in black leather pants carrying wicker bags that contain bottles of olive oil, which they must pour over every inch of their flesh. Because it’s so difficult for a participant to get a good grip on their opponent, a common strategy is “hands down pants,” which literally entails fully sticking your hands down another man’s pants. There are five levels of advancement in the sport and children as young as seven begin training to make it to the top.
Since 1362, the city of Edirne in Turkish Thrace has been celebrating oil wrestling by hosting an annual Kirkpinar tournament. The event is the oldest, continuously running, sanctioned, sporting competition in the world, and people from all over travel to watch Pehlivan (wrestlers) compete for the winning gold belt and the title of “Chief Pehlivan.” Sorry ladies, the sport is for men only. But, don’t think that just any guy off the street can enter the contest, as Pehlivans are held in high esteem and are considered role models with honest, humble, moral, and respectful personalities. These men are also expected to adhere to local traditions and are trained as an apprentice by a master of the sport. This year, the event will take place July 2-8, 2012.
For a better idea of this unique pastime, check out the short documentary above.