The Oh-oh-oh-Ohhhlympics is in full swing in the Athletes' Village if you are to believe the tabloids. With the first week of action over, which means blue-riband sport swimming is out of the way, those competitors who have finished performing can now afford to let their hair down, among other things. And organisers have catered for them with 150,000 condoms being dished out to the 10,000 athletes. Britain might be on an austerity drive, but they haven't scrimped on this important item.
In Beijing, they only handed out 100,000 so the British have been 50 per cent more generous. The Games have come a long way. In 1988 at the Seoul Olympics, only 8,500 condoms were given out, which must have been one per person.
It was 50,000 in Barcelona in 1992 and numbers have kept increasing since. At Sydney 2000 it was 70,000, but the Aussies had under-estimated and had to order an extra 20,000 as demand was high. We couldn't find out how many was given out in 2004 in Athens, but the birthplace of the Olympics, when athletes, only men, used to take part in the buff, had a reputation to keep and I'm sure they had enough of a stockpile to avert a crisis.
And if you think the athletes keep these condoms as souvenirs, you might be wrong. US women's soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo was quoted in one of the British tabloids as saying: 'There's a lot of sex going on at the Olympics. I've seen people having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings'.
She was talking about Beijing, but who's to say it isn't happening in London? Organisers certainly aren't handing out that many condoms just so athletes can blow balloons for the closing ceremony.
