Date:26/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/26/stories/2008072651801800.htm

Sport - Olympic Games

Athletes Village prepares for grand opening

BEIJING: The Olympic Games are two weeks away, but athletes are already arriving in Beijing. The Athletes Village, a sprawling complex of high-rise apartments that will lodge 16,000 athletes and officials, formally opens on Sunday.

“We want the village to be a cosy place that will make the athletes feel like they are coming home,” said Deng Yaping, an Olympic table tennis gold medallist and deputy director of the Olympic Village Department of the Beijing Organising Committee.

Deng said 35 of the 205 delegations already had some representation in the village.

The village will contain a restaurant that can feed 5,000 people, teahouses, a barber shop, post office, its own fire station, shopping areas, library, a clinic, and coffee shops. Western and Asian cuisine will be available 24 hours a day.

Village restaurants will serve traditional Beijing dishes such as Peking Duck and hand-shaved noodles.

“Athletes can also request their favourite dishes and we will try our best to accommodate them,” Deng said. — AP