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During the Sydney Olympics, 70,000 condoms were distributed to athletes for their use but they ran out so fast that another 20,000 had to be brought in. Learning their lesson, officials for the Athens games provided 130,000 condoms free of charge to athletes. At the meticulously manicured 66 hectare Olympic village, BOCOG officials have done such a wonderful job preparing everything from Peking Duck to Chinese massage, calligraphy lessons, live Chinese folk music and armies of smiling volunteers to keep athletes entertained that they decided they could do without the condom gift-bags this year. Alcohol has been banned in the village (with all the wonderful Chinese tea that you can have, why would you want to booze?) and the inhouse 90s pop disco shuts down at midnight, leading Catherine Bremer of Reuters to declare in this amusing article — "the evening entertainment sucks". We also loved this complaint made in broken English by Kazakh canoeing trainer Alexandr Davydov which pretty much sums up what life is like within the village:
“Is too many smiley and good behavior. No TV and no frozen... Just sitting in the apartment each night...”TIME Magazine estimates that 10,000 prostitutes serviced some 150,000 clients daily during the Sydney Games, leading officials at Athens to consider licensing more brothels to meet surging demand. Fortunately, their successors BOCOG haven't had to deal with this headache because prostitutes do not exist in China.
UPDATE: New tip from reader Spelunker: BOCOG has actually prepared 100,000 condoms. Looks like even the Shanghai Daily which reprinted the above article was wrong about it all.
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Just a small quibble: in the sentence, "Fortunately, their predecessors BOCOG haven't had to deal..." the word "predecessors" is incorrect and should be "successor", so the sentence reads, "Fortunately, their successor BOCOG hasn't had to deal..."
Thanks for pointing that out Fuzi. Must have been drunk when I wrote that =)
I found condoms at the 2008 Olympics, and BOCOG does indeed have a hand in the distribution:
"Another project have also been launched by UNAIDS, BOCOG and the IOC, 'Play Safe -- Help stop HIV.' The objective set is to educate athletes participating in the Beijing Games about HIV and recruit them as ambassadors to raise awareness about the epidemic.
Informative leaflets will be distributed to all athletes competing in the Games, and free condoms will be made available at the polyclinics of the three Olympic Villages in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/909/sp1.htm
Chinese media have revealed the number of condoms available at China's Olympic villages to be 100,000. That figure is higher than Sydney's Olympics (70,000) and lower than Athens (130,000)
http://dzb.sg.com.cn/stylelife/ylzm/284514.shtml
http://www.aoyunchina.com/2008/news/20080804/10261.html
Why condoms, while hundreds of American whores in town all carry with their own?
Gotta keep covered while the world's white, black, Korean and Japanese athletes line up behind China's female athletes.
All aboard!!!
To nanheyangrouchuan,
Who cares, if I am anyway behind you? LOL!
@ leastman
As if...
"...prostitutes do not exist in China". You are not a man.
@ Peacehugger, time to turn your sarcasm meter on
@ eastman my only consolation is as your demeanor acts as a natural contraceptive you won't be contaminating the gene pool any time soon