Guest guest Posted August 14, 2008 Report Share Posted August 14, 2008 While preparing for the Olympics, Yoder-Begley spoke to the chefs at the Olympic Village and found out they wouldn’t accommodate her allergy. Without accommodations, she’d be living on SoyJoy bars, bananas, organic peanut butter and cereal for almost two weeks. She called the United States Olympic Committee and found a chef there who would cook for her. She had him take food to Beijing but has to travel from the Olympic village to the American restaurant to eat. “Their take on it is that they aren’t used to it,” Andrew Begley said. “They don’t want to be blamed for a poor performance at the Olympics.” And Yoder-Begley doesn’t want to be sick before the race. She will take shuttle buses, a minor inconvenience in her attempt to stay healthy. She’s envisioned the race already, figuring it’ll be slower than normal as the runners deal with heat, humidity and pollution. She thinks it might be like the trials in Oregon, because that race went out slow, too. “The goal is to stay in the race as long as possible,” Yoder-Begley said. “If they make a move, make a move and go with them.” Yoder-Begley realizes that with a good performance in Beijing and her story being told, knowledge about her disease could skyrocket. “It’d be great if it did,” Yoder-Begley said. “I’m finding more and more restaurants that have gluten-free menus. There are still places that don’t and kind of refuse to serve you, but I’m kind of hoping eventually people raise a little bit more awareness just about where their food comes from and what’s in it and stuff like that.” MORE............. http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080809/SPORTS13/808090340 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.