Members of the Croatian handball team wait for their meal at a McDonalds in the Olympic athletes village in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 30, 2016. The 2016 summer olympic games are scheduled to open Aug 5. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Source: Time

By Sean Gregory/Rio de Janeiro

The line snakes out of the door and into the 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’s fittest human beings have gathered on this Friday evening to endure thirty-minute waits for food that, in theory at least, could spoil their Olympicdreams.

At the end of the long queue? The same Big Macs, McNuggets and milkshakes that are available at many of the more 36,000McDonald’s restaurants elsewhere in the world–and often with far shorter waits. Yet the temporary outpost in the athlete village–which is open to athletes, coaches, and other personnel bunking there––may be the hottest ticket in Rio.

Price surely has something to do with it. A longtime sponsor of the Olympics, this McDonald’s 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’t have data on the volume of orders at the location.)

“It breaks the monotony,” 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. “You feel comfortable and happy eating. You get to relax, and slow down a bit.”

Others see a (not so) fast food hit as a way to celebrate a hard-earned win. Aleksandar Radovic, a member of Montenegro’s 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. “McDonald’s is not good for the athletes,” Radovic acknowledges. “But 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 Coca-Cola. That’s it. And if they don’t have a Big Mac, we will celebrate with Chicken McNuggets.”

Not that Radovic thought that any of it was good for him. “I would also like to apologize to my coach, Vladimir Gojkovic,” says Radovic. “But maybe if we go to the semifinals, we will celebrate with a Big Mac until we lose.” (He’ll enjoy it: On Tuesday, Montenegro beat Hungary, winner of nine Olympic gold medals, to advance to the semifinals.)

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