We're Not Making This Up: Reston Town Center to be 'Athletes Village' for Faux 2015 Olympics

When you think of the lofty ideals of the Olympic Games, you think of athletes training and competing in grueling contests of strength and character, then strolling to the Apple store for a new Shuffle or Uno's for a little old-fashioned carb loading. Wait, what?

Turns out the Reston Town Center will be the official "athletes village" for the 2015 Games -- not the Olympic Games, mind you, given that they 1) fall on even-numbered years and 2) are hosted by places with decent mass transit, but the 30th Annual World Police and Fire Games, which will bring 10,000 athletes from around the world to the D.C. area -- and to Reston.

Fairfax beat out Toronto to get the Games, which could bring an estimated $40 million in revenue into the region.

From the opening ceremonies at Nationals Park to a triathlon at Lake Anna, 10,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 65 sports from June 25 to July 5. Thousands of spectators are also expected.

The athletes' village, where the competitors will stay and where the medals will be awarded, will be at Reston Town Center.

"Sixty-two of the 65 sports -- on average -- are 11 minutes driving time from the host hotel," says Fairfax Police Lt. Bruce Blechel.

Fairfax County Public Schools will be using its entire bus fleet to help move the athletes around. Fifty of the events will be in Fairfax County and the closing ceremony will be at the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center.

Fear not -- the biggest "action" will be at the Town Center, including the breathtaking darts, table tennis and wrist wrestling competitions. And there's more! Our favorite correspondent, the Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, offers the following suggestions:

Swim in the lake, run 26.2 miles up and down the new Metro Silver Line tracks to West Falls Church and back, and then head off to Lawyers Road to bike up and down the newly-constructed cyclist lanes, a.k.a., the VDOT Velodrome. And they could do the SWAT competition in any of the esteemed housing complexes that The Convict From Gulag Four is always talking about!

But just one question: if the athletes' village is Reston Town Center, where are they going to put 10,000 athletes?

There might be a few new spots to cram people into by then. Speaking of which, Eileen from South Reston asks this prescient question:

Any chance this, and other events like it, had something to do with the County-supported push for an indoor sports complex in Reston?

Hmmm. All joking aside, this could be a pretty cool event. After all, to quote one Reston resident:

I can't escape the image of half naked exhausted firemen sprawled in and around the Mercury Fountain. Hmmmm...now that I think about it...I mean, they *are* America's heroes, after all. They deserve our best welcome.