By Jacob Brown
Seldom do you find thousands of people from dozens of different countries jam-packed into an area stretching for little more than a kilometre.
But for every Olympic Games, you’ll find such a cultural coming-together at the athletes' village. The one constructed for Rio 2016 has been billed as the largest ever built.
There are more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries competing at this Olympics, and many of them are staying at the athletes' village.
At its peak, more than 18,000 people, including officials, will be calling the complex home.
Of course, there have been problems and they have been reported on extensively. But put that to one side you have to wonder what it's like to live there.
New Zealand rower Emma Twigg is about to compete in her third Olympics and says she’s looking at the positives.
"I actually rate this village as one of the best of the three in terms of there’s all sorts going on," she told Newshub.
The 31-building complex offers "round-the-clock options for eating, entertainment and gifts".
"From the outside it looks fantastic, from the inside there's a few blemishes but that's the Brazilian way," Twigg says.
"What I'm trying to embrace about Rio is the beautiful, colourful people and I guess their happiness and attitude towards life, and I guess that's kind of rubbed off on some of the workmanship, perhaps."
A glowing assessment, though Australian basketballer Andrew Bogut has made light of the accommodations on Twitter using the hashtag IOCLuxuryLodging.
He also posted
Fellow Kiwi rower Julia Edward says the living spaces have been fine, and if anything, it’s the traffic that’s taking some getting used to.
"What we've been getting used to is the travel, but that will get better with the Olympic lane that has opened up and hopefully the locals will move across for us."
Alistair Bond is competing at his first Olympics, and says living at the athletes' village has been an eye-opener, especially when it comes to competitiveness.
"To be honest some of my first experiences are there's a lot of arrogance among other competitors…maybe not arrogance, but they’re extremely confident in themselves and maybe they're used to being the big fish in the sport in their country."
At the Olympic Games however, those big fish become small ones, in a very big pond.
Newshub.
