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Topics: Olympics, Sport, Sex and Relationships
Emily Brown
Topics: Olympics, Sport, Sex and Relationships
The Winter Olympics is well and truly underway in Italy, and that means three things: sports, medals, and... safe sex?
We're only a few days into the games, but already it seems like sex and relationships are fighting for the spotlight over the actual events.
So far we've had Team USA's Breezy Johnson get engaged at the base of the super-G ski run in Cortina D’Ampezzo, and Norweigan athlete Sturla Holm Lægreid admitting live on air to having cheated on his girlfriend prior to the games, but we're not done yet.
Apparently, it took just three days of athletes being at the Olympic Village for the facility to run out of free condoms entirely, reportedly leaving those in charge rushing to get more for the pent-up competitors.
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The news has been reported by Italian newspaper La Stampa, which also cited an anonymous athlete who said: "The supplies ran out in just three days. They promised us more will arrive, but who knows when.”
Attilio Fontana, the governor of the Lombardy region, has previously confirmed that officials provide free condoms to athletes in the Olympic village.
In a post shared online, he said: “If this seems strange to some, they’re unaware of the established Olympic practice. It began in Seoul 1988 to raise awareness among athletes and young people about sexually transmitted disease prevention— a topic that shouldn’t cause embarrassment.”
While the news that athletes are out of condoms does immediately paint a picture of them jumping into bed the second they return from their events, it actually seems to have been an issue with supply in the first place.
La Stampa's report alleges that officials had not been 'particularly generous with the numbers' of condoms, noting that competitors at the 2024 Olympics in Paris had been equipped with 300,000 condoms, equating to two each per day, but at the Winter Olympics athletes had 'not even 10,000'.
There are significantly less athletes competing at the Winter Olympics - just under 3,000, in comparison to the 10,500 who appeared in Paris - but that evidently doesn't mean they're getting any less action.
There are around 1,500 men competing at the Winter Olympics, which equates to around six condoms each - all used in just three days. And that's not even taking into account the fact that there are competitors who won't be having sex at the games due to their relationship status or other factors.
The good news is, there's plenty of other things to do at the Olympic village to keep athletes busy when they're not between the sheets - preparing for their potentially life-changing event being just one of them, along with games, musical instruments and catering.
UNILAD has reached out to Fontana and the Olympics for comment.