With the 2016 Summer Olympics just a couple weeks away, Rio de Janeiro is hard at work preparing for the big games. In addition to getting the city prepped for both athletes and spectators, in the hopes of getting people to practice safe sex, Brazil’s government will hand out free condoms. Nine million condoms, to be exact.
About 450,000 of the sustainably produced condoms will be given to the athletes and staff in the Olympic Village, with the rest going to visitors who are in town for the games. The condoms, made by Natex, are made from Amazon rubber trees and are gathered by government hired tappers. In employing the tappers, not only does their livelihood remain intact, as in keeping illegal loggers at bay, but it creates for one hell of a condom, that’s both necessary in keeping sex safe and in positively contributing to the environment.
These tappers are up against illegal loggers who have zero regard for the fragility of the rainforest, so these people feel that they’re not just guardians of this land, but supplying the world with a product that everyone needs: Condoms. And, from stats from previous Olympics, it seems no place really needs them more, because OMG... all the sex.
1. Free Condoms For Olympians Isn’t A New Concept
In 2012, a record 150,000 condoms were handed out to the athletes at the Olympian Village. To break that down, that’s 15 condoms per athlete for the two-week-long games. The amount given out in 2012 was 50 percent higher than the amount given out in the London and Beijing games before that.
2. Olympians Have A LOT Of Sex
Although you’d think that they’d want to save their energy for the games, rumor has it that a lot of sex is going on at the Olympic Village. As U.S. soccer goalkeeper, Hope Solo told the Daily Mirror in 2012: “There's a lot of sex going on at the Olympics. I've seen people having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings.” I really should have stuck with gymnastics.
3. Olympians Love Tinder
Apparently, Tinder use at the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi was “next level,” according to American snowboarder, Jamie Anderson. Not only were the athletes using it to hook up with other athletes, but it became so all-consuming for some that athletes like Anderson actually had to delete their Tinder account just so they could focus on the games.
4. 2012 Olympians May Have ‘Crashed’ Grindr
According to the Daily Mirror, the gay dating app Grindr crashed just as athletes started to arrive in London in 2012, with the technicians citing an on slot of new members as the reason. It took about 24 hours for the app to get back on track and running again, so as to fulfill the needs of all those, um, hungry Olympians.
5. Outdoor Sex During The Olympics Had To Be Banned
During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, outdoor sex actually had to be banned by the Olympic Association because so many condoms were being found on the roofs of the Olympic Village buildings. I guess there’s more privacy on roofs, than a room with three or four other athletes.
6. Orgies Happen
While curfews and rules are somewhat enforced by coaches at the Olympic Village, that doesn’t stop the athletes from having a good time. In 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, six athletes “some Germans, Canadians, and Austrians” ended up having themselves quite an orgy in a hot tub, according to ESPN sources.
7. The Olympics Have Been Called A ‘Sex Fest’
According to table tennis Olympian, Matthew Syed, he got laid more in the two weeks he was at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, than he’d ever been laid in his life. He also wrote a piece after the 2008 Beijing games for the Times of London calling the Olympics a “sex fest.” I'll say it again: I really should have stuck with gymnastics.
Images: Andrew Zaeh for Bustle; Giphy (7)
