Rio Olympics organisers to distribute 450,000 condoms among athletes

With Brazil in the midst of a Zika outbreak, safe sex is an even higher priority

From Zika virus to low attendance, athletes participating in Rio Olympics 2016 may have a lot to complain about but it seems shortage of condoms is not going to be one of them.

Rio Olympic organisers are distributing 450,000 condoms to athletes, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

During the 2012 London games, organisers handed out a third as many condoms as will be distributed in Rio and only 100,000 condoms were given out at the 2014 winter games in Sochi.



With Brazil in the midst of an outbreak of Zika, which can be sexually transmitted, safe sex is an even higher priority than in previous Olympics. However, the organisers did not comment on the enormous scale of condom deployment.

In the interest of equality and variety, 100,000 of those will be female condoms, and 175,000 lubricant sachets will also be available. That’s an Olympic record at the equivalent of 42 condoms per athlete. Presuming the athletes are paired with one another and using only one condom per encounter, that’s enough contraception for 84 encounters.



Since the 1992 games in Barcelona, dispensing free condoms has become a tradition to promote the prevention of AIDS. The supply must come in handy, given the reports of free-wheeling sexual activity at Olympic villages.

This article originally appeared on Quartz.