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11:05am

Wed July 25, 2012
The Salt

How Many Calories Do Olympic Athletes Need? It Depends

Originally published on Wed July 25, 2012 11:06 am

Food, as we so often note on this blog, means a lot of different things to different people. To Olympic athletes, food is fuel for exceptional athletic performance. But there's a surprising amount of variety in just how much fuel elite athletes need.

Anyone who followed Michael Phelps' astonishing performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games surely will remember one of the secrets of his success: Consuming as many as 12,000 calories in a day.

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5:07am

Wed July 25, 2012

8:03pm

Tue July 24, 2012
Sweetness And Light

From Obscurity To The Olympics Back To Obscurity

Originally published on Wed July 25, 2012 6:12 am

Credit Jeff Roberson / AP

Why do we like the Olympics?

If somebody hadn't thought to start them up again 116 years ago, would ESPN have invented them to fill in summer programming?

I'm not being cranky. It's just that most of the most popular Olympic sports are the groundhog games. Swimming, gymnastics and track and field come out every four years, see their shadow and go right back underground where nobody pays any attention to them for another four years. Can you even name a gymnast?

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