ANNA J. JAMES
Already, a Rio Olympic record has been broken: 450,000 condoms for 17 days.
According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, athletes competing in Rio have access to 42 condoms each, as the International Olympic Committee [IOC] provided 350,000 male, 100,000 female condoms and 175,000 packets of lubricant.
That’s three times the protection offered at the most recent Summer Olympics, 2012 London.
For those who use one condom per encounter and have one sex partner, which is another Olympian, that’s enough rubber for 84 sexual encounters.
However, history shows this is seldom the case.
Olympic village sex has become a sport itself, with athletes hunting for hook-ups; frequent, random, quick, and in some cases, with multiple partners at once.
“What happens in the village stays in the village,” Summer Sanders, two-time Olympic gold medalist said to ESPN.
Sexual debauchery has always plagued the Olympics—particularly the winter games.
At the 1994 Norway games, German bobsledders offered a U.S. skier their gold medals in exchange for sexual favours.
In 2010, snowboarder Scotty Lago was sent home from Vancouver prematurely after a photo emerged of a fan biting his bronze medal, which was hanging from his belt buckle.
Also in Vancouver, six Olympians (from Germany, Canada and Austria) reportedly engaged in a spa party turned whirlpool orgy.
After the first week of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the IOC ordered an additional 20,000 condoms to replenish their dwindling stock (of 70,000, no less), cementing the 100,000 condom minimum per Olympics rule.
The IOC has supplied condoms since the 1988 Beijing games—8,500 in total.
However, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics is credited with making AIDS and STI prevention a public Olympic issue, by providing 90,000 condoms.
This health initiative isn’t without its detractors.
At the 2002 Salt Lake City games, (where 60% of its population is Mormon), protesters rallied against free protection.
At the 2008 Beijing games, 100,000 condoms were divided amongst 400 hotels that were rated 3-star and above—the organisers received backlash for their selective distribution.
During the Vancouver games 100,000 condoms were distributed (which worked out as 15 per athlete).
In recent years, headlines such ‘Olympic Village—More Sex than Woodstock’ have forced the IOC to clarify that condoms are given to staff, volunteers and patrons.
Athletes received only 6.2 condoms each in Vancouver, said an IOC spokesperson in 2010.
Sochi had the standard 100,000 condoms and the added stress of the Tinder boom.
In 2012, Durex, the official provider for London, flew in 150,000 units.
With Brazil fighting an Zika outbreak, protection has moved even higher on the Committee’s agenda.
Australians have taken their own anti-viral condom kits.
Considering 35 million condoms are provided for the Mardi Gras in Rio, 450,000 doesn’t seem excessive.
The IOC described the 2016 allocation as “sufficient”.
