Love is (back) in the air at the Winter Olympics.
At the Olympic Village in Milano-Cortina, a supply of about 10,000 free condoms to competing athletes was immediately available in three days – but they have now been returned.
Some condoms were given to the athletes at the beginning of this week, a spokesman for the organizing committee for the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed to USA Today.
The reconstruction of rubber comes after the Italian site La Stampa reported a shortage of housing, due to, according to the IOC, “greater demand than expected.”
“It shows that Valentine’s Day is getting more and more intense locally, and I don’t think I can add much to that,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters on the February 14 holiday.
It is not clear how many more condoms were brought to the Olympic Village to replenish the supply.
“I think 10,000 (condoms) have been used,” Adams explained about the shortage. “So 2,800 athletes, you can go, as they say.”
Fortunately for the athletes, the IOC plans to keep contraceptives “continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
“The IOC is working closely with the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee to support the mental and physical health of athletes, including supporting sexual health services,” the IOC statement said.
“The details of the provision are determined by the OCOG, and the IOC believes that appropriate facilities are available to all athletes.”
Madagascar skier Mialitiana Clerc told USA Today that she was not surprised to hear of the shortage this year.
“I know that at the Winter Olympics a lot of people use condoms,” he said. “I also saw it at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. There were boxes at the entrance of all the buildings we lived in, and everything was gone.”
“I already know that many people use condoms, or maybe they give them to their friends outside of the Olympics. Maybe they use them as gifts, just for fans.”
Handing out condoms to athletes has been standard practice since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
They were even distributed during the illegal COVID-2020 “intimacy ban” in Tokyo, where organizers ordered 160,000 condoms to be issued, according to NPR.
Although the 2026 Winter Games have a smaller pool of athletes — more than 2,900 athletes compared to nearly 10,500 for the Summer Olympics — the demand for condoms has not changed.
And the 100,000 condoms provided to athletes competing this year aren’t even in the same league as the nearly 300,000 condoms provided at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Italian newspaper Stampa reported that organizers this year “were not particularly generous in numbers” compared to previous Olympic Games.
In 2024, Olympic prophylactics excel in their bright, colorful packaging with images of the official mascots of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics of Paris 2024, Fryges, and messages on each package.
