Inside ‘The Edge’ — the social haven for Australia’s athletes in Rio

WIVES and girlfriends are banned from the Athletes’ Village, but now there’s an incredible new rendezvous spot. We take you inside ‘The Edge’, Kitty Chiller’s brainchild.

Athletes gather at the "Edge", the Australian Olympic team meeting place in Rio for training and to relax.

WIVES and girlfriends might be banned from the Athletes’ Village, but for a precious half-hour yesterday the Olympic WAGs could rendezvous with their personal Olympic heroes.

Welcome to The Edge — the chill-out zone for our athletes. It’s an Australian Olympic first born of the necessity to strike a balance between the importance of social lives and the dangers of distraction.

Rio marks the first Games where, as a crackdown on the back of the London debacle, athletes no longer can hand out visitors’ passes to bring family into their village.

Rugby 7s stars Jesse Parahi and Nick Malouf were among the first athletes to meet up with their partners at The Edge yesterday, as the sanctuary’s doors were thrown open to media for a first look at the old wedding reception venue that has been transformed into an Aussie hideaway.

Athlete Jacob Schmid plays ping pong as Athletes gather at the "Edge".

Parahi was reunited with his wife Carlien and Malouf with girlfriend Aimee Bennett after almost 10 days apart, ahead of their tournament.

Around them, athletes met parents, aunts and uncles with open arms and some teary eyes.

And it felt like home — Australian baristas from Campos have been flown in so athletes can get coffee they’ll like, there’s Vegemite, Cadbury chocolate, private chefs and drinks-mixers.

There’s a golf-simulator for when the oncourse competition isn’t enough, a swimming pool, a gym and sports fields.

Walls are lined with hand-coloured notes of encouragement from Australian schoolchildren, and images of great Olympic moments line the wall.

Notes of encouragement from Australian schoolchildren.

This was the vision of Australian Olympic boss Kitty Chiller: remove the chaos and distraction of dishing out guest passes into the Athletes Village and replace it with separate, private social haven.

The idea of banning visitors in the Athletes Village was born in the post-mortem of the London Games, where the constant rotation of visitors and disputes over guest passes was seen to be a distraction.

And so Rio would be different — there’d be a delineation between the competition-focused village, and social interaction with family and friends.

“We wanted a secure, tranquil haven for our athletes,” Chiller said yesterday at The Edge.

“This is exactly what I had in mind. I mean look at that …” she said, pointing to a Hockey player embracing his girlfriend.

“We set the policy of no family and friends in the village and so needed another option.”

Ms Parahi and Ms Bennett sipped on guava juice yesterday while their partners trained on the field.

““This is exactly what I had in mind.”

“We can’t go into the village and it’s difficult to figure out where we can meet at the best of times,” Ms Parahi said.

Ms Bennett said it was also comforting for the athletes to know they could come and see their family at any time, without the trouble of bringing them to the village.

“It’s really great for them to know if they want to see us this is where they can come,” Ms Bennett said.

“They can also do their training here and so they don’t have the pressure of coming here at the expense of other things — they can do both.”

Ms Chiller said athletes didn’t always want their parents visiting them in the village.

“That sounds terrible but it’s a competition venue. It’s a competition environment and we want to keep it that way. It needs to be performance focused. So they can come here to relax instead.”

Ms Chiller said several Olympics organising committees were scouting the venue but in 2014 she knew she wanted it and convinced the owner Australia should take the space.

It helped that his sister lived in Perth and he had a soft spot for the land down under.

Originally published as Inside ‘The Edge’ — the social haven for Australia’s athletes in Rio