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 specialising 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.” (Punch)