300,000 condoms for Paris 2024 athletes
After Tokyo 2020 with contact restrictions to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, the strict health policy of the Olympic Games is back and Paris 2024 will distribute 300,000 condoms to athletes, twice as many as London 2012, although far from the record set by Rio 2016.
Everything is back to normal after the somewhat peculiar Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in an odd year (2021) and with strict contact restrictions between athletes, spectators and journalists. One of the traditions of the Olympic Games is that thousands of athletes from all over the world live together in the Olympic Village to promote a spirit of friendship and camaraderie, rather than strictly competitive sport, as a symbol of unity and peace between nations.
For years, this scene has been accompanied by a responsible health policy, with thousands of condoms made available to athletes, delegation escorts and coaches for use during the event.
The Director of the Olympic Village, Laurent Michaud, revealed in an interview with Sky News that the Paris 2024 Games will have 300,000 condoms available for the more than 14,000 athletes and coaches who will be staying in the Olympic Village on the outskirts of the Parisian capital.
“It’s very important that the conviviality here is something big,” Michaud told Britain’s Sky News.
The director of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic villages Laurent Michaud told Sky News how they are preparing for the thousands of athletes who are about to descend on France’s capital.https://t.co/07gF6rByKp
pic.twitter.com/xHQXFFfA64— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 15, 2024
This policy is a return to the usual parameters, as although nearly 150,000 condoms were distributed at Tokyo 2020, restrictive policies and bans on intimacy for athletes were the main protagonists of Games where close physical contact was conspicuously absent.
Since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, organisers have distributed condoms to raise awareness and protect against the AIDS virus, as well as to protect people’s health as a fundamental right. “Working with the athletes’ commission, we wanted to create some places where the athletes would feel very enthusiastic and comfortable,” Michaud said.
While intimacy is once again allowed at the Olympic Games, alcohol will not be allowed in the Olympic Village, although no one can ban it outside the official gastronomic venue, which will offer French specialities as well as dishes that respect cultures from around the world, including a significant vegan menu.
Although the number of condoms is significant, with just over 20 condoms per resident in the Olympic Village, it is far from the record set in Rio 2016. In Brazil, the IOC distributed nearly 450,000 condoms, 100,000 female condoms and 175,000 bottles of lubricant, an average of almost 40 per athlete or delegation member, almost double the number for these Games, which will be held in the City of Love from 26 July to 11 August.