Strict Diet Guidelines for Chinese Olympic Athletes - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

To become an Olympic athlete requires years of strenuous physical practice. But a disciplined diet is just as important.

There are tight restrictions on Olympic athletes in some countries like China, where they are not allowed to eat at a public restaurant or street vendor, because they might accidently ingest performance enhancing chemicals.

The Chinese marathon runners raise their own chickens to ensure that the meat is not tampered with, and the judo team has a supply of pork from live pigs that they take care of.

The Chinese women’s volleyball team was on a strict diet during the 2012 World Grand Prix finals because they didn’t have access to the special certified untainted meat from their cafeteria back home. The women came in fifth place, which the coach blamed on the lack of meat on their plates.

One of the coaches told Beijing News: "We dared not eat pork when we come out of our training camp for the tournament because we are afraid of clenbuterol." The chemical that is found in about half of the meat consumed in Beijing.