What It's Really Like to Compete in the Olympics

The J.Rogan experience. So that's going to be this summer. Do you want to do it with crowds? That's a good question. I don't know yet. So the Japanese Prime Minister made an announcement public statement saying, hey, listen, we're going to host the Olympics this summer. No matter what one of the interesting things about it is although it's happening in 21, they're still calling it Tokyo 2020. I think they were saving face for all the marketing material that they already made that cost them billions of dollars, right? Chances zero to a one. Is that really worth five billion dollars or whatever? That's interesting, but it's going to be interesting how they figure it out because the Olympic Village is like a town. There's 10,000 coaches and athletes from every country on the face of the planet all put into a one-mile radius on this Olympic campus and there's just so much interaction engagement. I'm talking the cafeteria at the Olympic Games is five football fields long. They've got a McDonald's like a full-size McDonald's in the cafeteria and the Olympic Village. They've got foods from all different parts of the country. You've got an Italian station, a Japanese station, American station, you know, and a Pan-African station. They have it's insane. You have literally thousands of people swirling in at all times. 24 hours. How many people are in line at the McDonald's station? Bro, like for if you're coming from America, you can go down the street. There's a McDonald's within, you know, a mile of anybody while you're here stateside, but if you're coming from one of these smaller country coming from Guinea-Bissau or you're coming from, I don't know, Qatar, like you're like, damn, McDonald's sounds pretty good. I don't get this at the crib. Let me go ahead. Grab me a little quick couple McChickens, couple double cheeseburgers, put them in the room, but it's always a bit of competing in the Olympics. They want to fuel their body with the best possible food available. Some of them know they can't win. Like, you know, like everyone going to the Olympics isn't expecting to win a medal like 90. I say 90% large, very large percentage of the competitors at the Olympic Games. It's a long shot for them to get on the podium. They're going with the expectation like, hey, listen, I'm representing my home country with pride. I am going to a country that I've never been before. Hopefully I can be on TV. My family will be watching me back home. The opening ceremonies is the best experience for them because they get to be in a full packed arena around all the athletes that they've seen on TV, but they know that realistically, they're not going to win. So when that McDonald's is open 24 hours, they're like, let's go, bro. We're going here. Do they have to pay for it? Free. Oh, that's everything's free. That's good. So it's it's a it's an interesting perspective being the Olympic village. It's it's a cool spot. It's got to be a wild experience to be there. It must feel so real. It's it's wild. So they're really strict with the way that they administer athletes and people to get in. You have to have a guest list if you want to bring anyone in. They have to be approved seven days in advance. So let's say my wife. I'm like, hey, I want my wife to come in to the Olympic Village. Check out our living space. Check out the free McDonald's. Then I have to put her on the list seven days in advance and it has to be approved by the USOPC and then also, you know, the IOC. Wow. So it's a it's a very they're they're they're bro. They're not playing dog. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, Joe, like they get it after it is done after and he's like, oh, after he's done. Well, that makes sense. Well, he's taking that home with him. He's put that all in his suitcase. He's going to go start a little McDonald's of his own when he gets back to the crib, but it's so when you get in the village, you have to it's almost like going through TSA at an airport. You got to show them your badge. They scan it. You got to get all your bags checked and make sure that you're good to go. You don't have any, you know, thing lethal in your bags. You get inside and it's literally like an apartment complex, huge apartment complex. Look at that. Lot McDonald's is the most popular restaurant. That's crazy. There. Listen, that's a crazy line. They're not getting salads and chicken selects. No, you know, they're getting burgers and McChickens and let's you same bike. I listen. Hey, whatever you need to do to be the fastest man in the world. Do your thing. Well, I guess also like when you're done, you probably just want to treat yourself. Yeah, you're eating very strict for a long period of time. Yeah, crazy. I that was my when I won the gold in 2012. My first meal afterwards was McDonald's very first. Yeah, I had double cheeseburger with a high C orange to drink and a large fry. So crazy story. I'll tell you the story. So I win the Olympic gold right after you win. They take you back to what they have like a media house. So it's got all of the publications from all over the world. You've got AP Sports Illustrated NBC, you know, just pretty much everything and so you go back and you just bounce from room to room. It's like, okay, we got Al Michaels here. We got Bob Costas here. We got, you know, Joe Rogan here. And so you go you show your medal. You tell them about your experience where you're from who you are what you're going to do with all this money and fame that you've just won. And then so soon as you're ushered out of there you competed at 8 o'clock and you don't get out of there to close to midnight. So by the time it's midnight in London really the only thing open is McDonald's right. So I'm still in my podium outfit like literally what I wore on the podium. I'm still in it at midnight. And so we go down to like Piccadilly in London and only things open as a McDonald's and so we went to like a club for a little bit one of my sponsors at the time had like bottle service. They wanted to celebrate me. So we leave there we go to McDonald's I get inside and packed clubs just let out everyone's like hungry. They're hungover. They just got done for the night full of drinking. They're all in line lines crazy. I go into the McDonald's my damn. I've been this long day. I wrestled all day long. I do not want to stand in line. I just want to see if I can work my way to the front. So I go and ask a guy. I'm like go bro. Listen, I just wrestled all day at the Excel Center. I just won an Olympic gold like you think I can get in front of you. You win a what stop and I'm like bro. I'm like I won the Olympics. He's like no you didn't. I had my medal in my pocket. I had my gold medal my pocket. So I pulled my gold medal out and show this guy. He's like starts going nuts. Oh my God this guy so he's yelling everyone. He's pushing people out of the way in this McDonald's. He's like this guy just won Olympic gold medal. Let him to the front of the line. Let him to the front. And so he's pushing people in the out of the way gets me like literally escorts me to the front of the line to get me my quarter-pounder and my large fry. It was wild. That's the craziest burger fry story ever. It was it was dope. It was awesome. That ought to be very memorable. It was fun. Wow. That's fun. Winning the gold medal would mean I know you've won the world championship but four times four Worlds one Olympics. But how much difference nothing like it Olympics are the best. It's it's rare. It only happens every four years. It's a single-day event. So you have to be your best on that single day. You only get one cycle to prepare for so we think of our careers like cyclically where like in a if you're an MMA fighter, you're like, okay, I can get an opportunity to fight for the belt as long as I continue to compete at a high level like keep my brand awareness at a at a good place but in wrestling the pinnacle is the Olympic Games. So no matter how many World Championships you win you want that Olympic gold and the crazy thing is the Worlds are harder than the Olympics. So the Olympics are a little more condensed in terms of the qualification process. So at Worlds, it's much easier to qualify. So you have 42 guys in your weight class or in your bracket at Worlds. You only have 16 at the Olympics. So in the World Championships, I won in 2015. I wrestled six matches. The Olympics I won in 2012. I only had four matches. And so and it's it's a random draw to you. So you could wrestle Russia first round which would suck or you could wrestle Puerto Rico first round which would suck less. So it's a it's a really interesting experience the way these brackets are drawn and I think that the Olympic Games has become so special because of everything surrounding it. You get more money more notoriety more recognition moving forward like winning the gold in 2012 catapulted me to where I am right now. Like when I'm recognized or announced in an event, it's always affiliated with that Olympic gold Olympic gold medalist Jordan bros like they always tell you whenever you step off the podium, you will forever be an Olympic gold medalist. You can't lose that you can lose your belt, right? You can never lose your gold. It always comes home with me at the end of the day no matter what I do moving forward. So that's pretty cool. That is an interesting perspective right because if you're a fighter you win the title and then you lose the title in your next fight. You're a former world champion or what but a Olympic gold medalist from 2012 is an Olympic gold medalist. Say Olympic. Yeah, so that's it's dope. Yeah, you made it through you did it and that's it but then there's another guy who was four years later. Yeah, it's a it's interesting. It's got to be a crazy experience catch new episodes. The Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify including clips easily seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify. You can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data cost all for free Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience.