Despite warnings to participants to “avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact” at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, organisers are expected to hand out 160,000 branded condoms.
Thousands of athletes will stay at the Olympic Village during the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, which start on Friday, July 23rd and ends August 9th; and the Paralympics from August 25 to September 6.
According to Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data, “approximately 11,100 athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and about 4.4 thousand for the Paralympics were expected to compete at the games.
However, the organising committee told AFP: “The distributed condoms are not meant to be used at the Olympic Village.”
Instead, they are supposed to be “brought back by athletes to their respective home countries and to help them support the campaign to raise awareness (about HIV/AIDS)”, it added.
Earlier, 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist, Paul Chelimo, had tweeted that beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, noting, “this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes.”
The 2017 World Bronze Medalist expressed concerns that the beds would only be able to withstand the weight of a single person “to avoid situations beyond sports.”
He concluded his tweet with, “I see no problem for distance runners, even four of us can do.”
While the organisers of the Games have since assured that the beds are sturdy enough to withstand the weights of two persons not above 200kg, they also express caution that sex isn’t necessarily expected to be a part of the games — at least, officially.
Starting on 23 July, the Tokyo Olympics will be the first major global sporting event since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.
International spectators are barred from attending the event and the number of foreign athletes willing to show up still remains questionable.
However, as of June, it was confirmed that four Japanese manufacturers will supply 160,000 condoms to competitors at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Athletes staying in the Olympic Village during the competition have been provided with condoms since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Nonetheless, the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee has introduced restrictions with regard to the condoms due to the pandemic.
“Our intent and goal is not for athletes to use the condoms at the Olympic Village, but to help with awareness by taking them back to their own countries,” officials said.
The committee is also considering only handing out the condoms after the competition is over and when the athletes leave the village.
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