No Condoms for Tokyo Olympics Athletes Until After the Games
Looks like the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be promoting safe sex among the athletes... but not until after the Games are over.
In an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 within the Olympic Village, organizers will be distributing condoms to the athletes, but only once they're actually leaving Japan and heading back to their home countries.
There are similar restrictions regarding alcohol at the Village, too: Alcohol is allowed within the Village confines, but athletes can only consume it once they're alone in their rooms. All of these efforts are meant to encourage social distancing among athletes.
Of course, the Olympic Village is well-known as a veritable hotbed of hookups and general revelry during every Summer and Winter Games, with athletes from countries around the world in close quarters as they compete for the gold.
Interestingly, condoms have been handed out at every Olympic Games since 1988, when the tradition began as a way to bring awareness to the HIV/AIDS crisis. At the '88 Games in Seoul, 85,000 condoms were initially given out.
By the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, that number had rocketed to a whopping 450,000 — with gigantic green vending machines placed in the Olympic food hall and other lounges around the athletes' Village.
"There’s a lot of sex going on," Hope Solo admitted in an interview during the 2012 Summer Games in London.
It'll certainly be interesting to see if the Tokyo Games' organizers' strategy of handing out condoms on the athletes' way out the door will be effective in curbing the amount of Olympic intercourse happening once the competition kicks off next month.