Paris Olympics to provide 300,000 condoms for athletes as sex ban lifted

Paris 2024 Olympics bosses will make 300,000 condoms available to athletes this summer following the lifting of a sex ban introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ahead of the games kicking off in France’s capital in July, Olympic chiefs have revealed there will be enough condoms available in the Olympic Village for each athlete to have two each for every day of the sporting event. 

The previous Olympic games in Tokyo in 2021, which was pushed back a year due to the outbreak of coronavirus in March 2020, saw the International Olympic Committee introduce an intimacy ban and social distancing rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This time around though, the great and good of sport will not be stopped from finding amour in the famed city of love. 

Laurent Michaud, director of the Olympic village, told Sky News that it is important “the conviviality here is something big”. 

“Working with the athletes commission, we wanted to create some places where the athletes would feel very enthusiastic and comfortable,” Michaud added. 

Condoms have been handed to athletes competing at the Olympic Games since the 1988 Seoul Olympics – a move originally designed to encourage safer sex and raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.

According to previous reports, the 2016 Games in Rio broke the record for the number of condoms handed out to participants – with 450,000 reportedly given out. 

Paris 2024 Olympics will be the most inclusive yet

Back in 2022, organisers said the 2024 Paris Olympic Games would be open and inclusive, reflective of bosses focus on the rights of disabled folk, the LGBTQ+ community and gender equality. 

“‘Games wide open’ [the event’s slogan] has really been our motivation from the start,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, told The Independent.

“It’s a simple slogan that says exactly what is important for us.”

However, this summer’s Olympic Games comes amid heightened tensions over the inclusion of trans athletes. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) currently allows the governing bodies of individual sports to set their own rules around the inclusion of trans athletes.

Previously, IOC guidelines said that trans women must have testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per litre a year before competing. However, this policy was not without fault and saw cis women barred from competing due to high testosterone levels. 

In recent months, several sporting bodies – including British Cycling and Swim England – have taken the decision to outright ban trans athletes from competing. 

In February, Republican politicians in the US attempted to legislate against trans women competing for Team USA at the Games. 

Florida representative Greg Steube and Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville introduced the Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, saying: “Whether in little league or the Olympics, it’s unsafe, it’s unfair and it’s just plain wrong. This bill will ensure that the Olympics are fair to American women who train their whole lives to represent our country on the world stage.”

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will run from 26 July to 11 August.