Laurent Michaud, the Olympic Village director, announced that the 2024 Paris Games will reintroduce a tradition by providing 300,000 condoms for the 14,250 athletes residing in the village.
“It is very important that the conviviality here is something big,” said Michaud.
Earlier reports stated that at the 2020 Olympics, condoms were provided, but intimacy among athletes was banned due to COVID. Athletes were instructed to restrict physical contact, including sexual activity, and maintain a distance of six and a half feet to curb the spread of the disease.
According to CBS Sports, condom distribution has been an Olympic tradition since the 1988 Seoul Games, aimed at raising HIV and AIDS awareness.
“Working with the athletes commission, we wanted to create some places where the athletes would feel very enthusiastic and comfortable,” Michaud told Sky News.
Despite intimacy being back on at the Olympics, athletes will not be able to indulge in champagne.
“No champagne in the village, of course, but they can have all the champagne they want also in Paris,” said Michaud. “We will have more than 350 meters of buffet with the world food… and I’m sure that the athletes will be very happy to have some French specialties made over here.”
The Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi told Sky News that Paris hopes to bring back normalcy after Tokyo’s pandemic delay.
“It has to be a celebration and it is a celebration. We’ve had many challenges in the past,” Dubi told the outlet. “In Rio, we faced situations that were amazingly complex. But what you see is that with a bit of goodwill from everyone — starting with the organizers, but also as far as the Olympic community is concerned — meeting with the challenges and coming up with solutions… is in the greater interest that the Games represent.”
“What we all want is for unity, peace and a celebration of the best athletes. This is how this creative family works together,” he continued. “Any challenge? We will win.”
