Athletes’ condoms tell users to ensure they have consent

A new set of athletes’ guidelines have appeared at this year’s Paris Olympics – and in the most unexpected of locations.

We’re not talking about the “whereabouts” forms required by the World Anti-Doping Agency, nor even the traditional oath read out during Friday night’s opening ceremony.

No, these admonitions appear on the wrappers of the Olympic condoms, which place a strong emphasis on seeking consent before any athletic activity begins.

Images posted on the official athletes365 Instagram page show five different slogans, including “Fair play, safe play: consent first”, and “On the field of love play fair – ask for consent”.

Also on the list are “Put performance aside – listen to your partner”, “Don’t share more than victory: protect yourself against STDs”, and the confidence-boosting “No need to be a gold medallist to wear it!”

On the back of the packet, a message reproduced in both English and French warns that “According to WHO [the World Health Organisation], last year, around 630,00 people died from HIV-related causes and 1.3 million people acquired HIV. Protect yourself, test yourself!”

Some 300,000 condoms are reported to have been handed out in the athletes’ village this year, which works out at an eyebrow-raising 33 per competitor.

That is double the 150,000 which were distributed in Tokyo three years ago. Mind you, the 2021 Games were supposed to be socially distanced, as they were held during the later stages of the Covid pandemic.

Another talking point in Paris has been the cardboard beds in the athletes’ village, even though these are similar to the beds used in Tokyo.

In a popular and surprisingly durable Twitter post from those last Olympics, the 5,000-metre runner Paul Chelimo claimed that the beds were “aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes”, adding that they “will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports. At this point I will have to start practising how to sleep on the floor”.

The idea that the cardboard beds are somehow “anti-sex” has recurred in certain quarters this week. But a number of athletes have debunked Chelimo’s claims by posting videos of themselves jumping up and down on the recyclable beds without any visible issues.

There should thus be free rein in Paris for competitors to engage in their own private gymnastic events, should they wish to do so. To the three values coined in the original Olympic motto – “faster, higher, stronger” – we can perhaps now add the word “safer”.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission