YouTuber, climber, and “the guy that learns things” Mike Boyd was given the opportunity to ask Olympic medalists two questions following the 2024 Paris Summer Games. He went with “how often do you train?”, and “do you drink alcohol?”, and the answers may surprise you, or they might be exactly what you’d expect.
Training every day, 2-3 times a day, sounds about right for a lot of these athletes. If you want to be the best of the best, you’ve got to commit near full time (25-30 hours a week) to getting better. Practice makes perfect, no? I think the fact that most of them don’t drink isn’t much of a surprise either, especially given the sports those interviewed compete in. Sports like judo, cycling, running, swimming, etc, would all be heavily hindered by alcohol consumption.
I’d be interested in seeing what sports, if any, do allow the best of the best to drink alcohol. I don’t want to make any heavy assumptions, because I don’t want to be that guy, but it seems as though many of the more creative sports, like freestyle skiing & snowboarding, skateboarding, etc, would allow for it. Again, no assumptions, and I’m sure for you to be the best of the best in any sport, you’d likely be toning it down a bit.