Saturday, 14 February 2026

Olympic rings pasta becomes latest viral food taking over the athletes' village

Weirdness Level6/10

๐ŸŒ€ Very Strange

Olympic rings pasta becomes latest viral food taking over the athletes' village

โ€œOlympic athletes have found their new obsession: pasta shaped like the Olympic rings that's taking over TikTok with 200K+ views. Snowboarder Hahna Norman rated it "11 out of 10" and "perfectly al dente," while Dutch speedskater Jutta Leerdam confessed this was "one of the reasons I wanted to qualify." Apparently, nothing says peak athletic achievement quite like carb-loading with geometrically accurate Italian cuisine.โ€

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Why It's Weird

These are the stories that make you question whether reality has become deliberately surreal. While the weirdness score is more modest, the story still offers a fascinating glimpse into life's unexpected moments.

The Milan Cortina Games have a new star dish: Olympic rings pasta.

A new culinary star has emerged victorious at the Milano Cortina Olympic Village: Olympic rings-shaped pasta.

The playful pasta, shaped like the iconic five interlocking Olympic rings, has quickly become one of the most buzzedโ€‘about foods to spark a wave of behind-the-scenes TikTok content among the elite winter athletes.

Hahna Norman, a rising star on the U.S. Snowboard Team, posted a TikTok video of herself eating the rings-shaped pasta, ranking it an 11 out of 10.

"Also it was perfectly al dente," she wrote in the caption of the video, which has amassed nearly 200K views since being posted earlier this week.

Dutch speedskater Jutta Leerdam also posted a video of herself taste-testing the pasta this week after winning her first Olympic gold medal.

"This is what I've been waiting for, guys," she says in the video, before taking a bite.

In the caption, Leerdam wrote, "One of the reasons I wanted to qualify. Sorry talking and chewing isn't the best combo."

Norwegian speedskater Aurora Lรธvรฅs posted a similar video on TikTok, enjoying a plate full of the festive shaped pasta set to the song "Che La Luna."

The official Olympics TikTok account first posted a video of the pasta back in October, 100 days prior to the Milan Cortina opening ceremony, showing how the specialty pasta is extruded, cut and boxed.

On Wednesday, in the wake of the pasta's sudden spike in social media fame, the official Olympics Instagram account shared a carousel of photos of the now-viral staple, writing in the caption, "The Olympic Rings Pasta takeover. ๐Ÿ."

"Today, we surprised our Olympians with a delicious feast," the caption continued. "Warning: these photos might make you hungry."

The rings-shaped pasta follows a long tradition of Olympic Village food going viral, joining past favorites like the now-famous chocolate muffins from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, which inspired several copycat recipes on social media.

As Olympic athletes document nearly every part of their daily routines from training to dining, the dish serves as a reminder that at the Games, even dinner can become a global sensation.

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