Foods that fuel Olympians (but maybe not in the way you think)

While most of the buzz about food and the Olympics revolves around what’s happening in the Olympic Village restaurants, there is another food nexus to the Games. That connection comes in the form of sponsorships for athletes. Making it to the Olympics takes a ton of time, training and effort, and all of that requires a lot of money. While some sports have huge corporate sponsors that chip in for team training facilities and coaches, individual athletes can also get support from companies (or even generous individuals like Flavor Flav, ‘girl dad’ who kicked in funds and sponsorship appearances for the US women’s water polo team).

Two of these sponsors were in an Eater article this week and both involve cheese. The first was Parmigiano Reggiano, which sponsored Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa in 2021. You may have seen some of the viral photos of the gymnast posing atop and alongside large wheels of the Italian cheese. Villa snagged a silver medal alongside her teammates in the Games. However, she wasn’t the only Olympian powered by dairy. US runner Elle Purrier St. Pierre, who qualified for Saturday’s finals in the women’s 1500m race, was sponsored by Cabot Cheese, also in 2021. That sponsorship was extremely appropriate since Purrier St. Pierre and her husband operate a dairy farm in Vermont that has worked with Cabot.

If all this cheese talk has made you hungry, head over to Food & Wine, which assembled a collection of French appetizers – including several that include cheese, such as the Fromage fort by Jacques Pépin pictured above – that you can make as you watch the final Olympic events.