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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This story originally appeared on TIME.com&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The line snakes out of the door and into the&amp;nbsp;Olympic athlete village in Rio de Janeiro, a United Nations of track-suits and warm-up gear: Algeria green, Bangladeshi blue, United Arab Emirates white. Some of the world\u2019s fittest human beings have gathered on this Friday evening to endure thirty-minute waits for food that, in theory at least, could spoil their&amp;nbsp;Olympicdreams.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the long queue? The same Big Macs, McNuggets and milkshakes that are available at many of the more 36,000&amp;nbsp;McDonald\u2019srestaurants elsewhere in the world\u2013and often with far shorter waits. Yet the temporary outpost in the athlete village\u2013which is open to athletes, coaches, and other personnel bunking there\u2013\u2013may be the hottest ticket in Rio.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Price surely has something to do with it. A longtime sponsor of the Olympics, this McDonald\u2019s is free. But Olympians waiting patiently for their fries and McFlurries on a recent night offered a range of other reasons for the popularity of the ultimate commodity restaurant. (The company says it doesn\u2019t have data on the volume of orders at the location.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt breaks the monotony,\u201D says Kevin Cordes, an American swimmer who won a gold in the 4 X 100 medley relay and says he had a burger before his first race in Rio. \u201CYou feel comfortable and happy eating. You get to relax, and slow down a bit.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Others see a (not so) fast food hit as a way to celebrate a hard-earned win. Aleksandar Radovic, a member of Montenegro\u2019s water polo team, felt he deserved a treat after they beat the U.S. earlier in the day to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. \u201CMcDonald\u2019s is not good for the athletes,\u201D Radovic acknowledges. \u201CBut our food in the village is so boring. Sometimes you need to change. This was a big victory. We will celebrate with one Big Mac, and one&amp;nbsp;Coca-Cola. That\u2019s it. And if they don\u2019t have a Big Mac, we will celebrate with Chicken McNuggets.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not that Radovic thought that any of it was good for him. \u201CI would also like to apologize to my coach, Vladimir Gojkovic,\u201D says Radovic. \u201CBut maybe if we go to the semifinals, we will celebrate with a Big Mac until we lose.\u201D (He\u2019ll enjoy it: On Tuesday, Montenegro beat Hungary, winner of nine Olympic gold medals, to advance to the semifinals.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No Olympian was under the impression that McDonald\u2019s was power food. A Portuguese track athlete was about to explain his favorite order before a teammate stopped him from going on the record, lest their coach and training staff get upset. Nicola Muscat, a swimmer from Malta, sheepishly admitted eating a McChicken sandwich three days before her first race (she finished seventh in her 50-m heat). \u201CThis is like confessing my guilt to a priest,\u201D Muscat says.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jamaican shot putter O\u2019Danye Richards, who won bronze at last year\u2019s world championships and starts throwing Thursday, says the key to managing his McNugget and McFlurry habit is moderation. \u201CIt\u2019s all about how much you eat,\u201D says Richards. \u201CIf you don\u2019t overdue it, you\u2019ll be fine.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He\u2019s not completely wrong says nutritionist Dan Benardot. \u201COlympians have the capacity to metabolize fat in a far superior way than the rest of us,\u201D says Benardot, a professor of nutrition at Georgia State University who has worked with Olympic gymnasts, marathoners and figure skaters. \u201CThat doesn\u2019t change the fact that it\u2019s not the best entity for competing athletes.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Other athletes say the golden arches are a better choice than the offerings in the athlete mess. \u201CThe food in the dining hall is not good,\u201D says Mohad Ishak, a 10-m platform diver from Egypt whose competition starts Friday. \u201CAnd I have to eat something.\u201D He thinks he\u2019s better off downing two Big Macs a day than consuming nothing. \u201CI\u2019m not going to put on weight from two Big Macs,\u201D Ishak says, adding that his coach agrees\u2013and often asks him to bring back fries.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the most prominent athlete to tout the power of McDonald\u2019s is the Jamaican track star&amp;nbsp;Usain Bolt, who famously said he loaded up on&amp;nbsp;McNuggets&amp;nbsp;before he broke the 100-m world record at the 2008 Olympics. But there is griping in the village that McD\u2019s may have become too popular.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201COh my God, it pisses me off,\u201D&amp;nbsp;judoka Kayla Harrison&amp;nbsp;says of the long lines. \u201CIt\u2019s insane.\u201D Two days after becoming the first American to win back-to-back judo gold medals, she tried to sate a long-denied craving for a Big Mac and McFlurry. \u201CWe went and stood in the line for ten minutes, and we were like, \u2018OK, we\u2019re not doing this,\u2019\u201D says Harrison. \u201CPeople were walking by with three bags. They must be like, \u2018I\u2019ll have 24 cheeseburgers\u2019.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/olympics/2016/08/17/mcdonalds-rio-olympic-village-2016-olympics>