Olympians use athletic facility in North America sporadically as it is (8)
I believe the answer is:
gymnasts
'olympians' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'use athletic facility in north america sporadically as it is' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'facility' could be 'gym' (gym is a kind of facility) and 'gym' is present in the answer.
'north' could be 'n' (abbreviation) and 'n' is present in the answer.
'america' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?