Inexplicably, condoms have been at the forefront of the discourse surrounding the 2026 Winter Olympics hosted in Milan and Cortina. It’s not the first time condoms have come up at the Olympics, of course; the 1988 Seoul Olympics brought the technology to the forefront to raise awareness about STDs in the middle of the AIDs crisis. That year, 8,500 condoms were handed out. Nearly 40 years later, the Olympics actually ran out of condoms pretty early during its run.
It’s not exactly the cutest story to come out of the 2026 Olympics – which definitely has to go to the adorable Grandpa supporting in knitwear. However, in case you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat to see what happened next, there are no images of hedonistic young folk abandoning all safety practices in the Olympics Village. Officials have managed to restock them (and news has run around about where the condoms are going, anyway.) Olympic officials acted as if the loss of condoms was simply a blip in the plans, noting supplies were “temporarily depleted due to higher-than-anticipated demand.”
Those same officials told The Athletic they will absolutely not be making the same mistake again, and that the condoms will continue to be doled out until the end of the games moving forward.
Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all villages between today (Saturday) and Monday. They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.
Now, we should be able to get back to the 2026 TV schedule with fewer viral interruptions. But how did we get here, anyway?
Paris, Milan Cortina And The Condoms By The Numbers
When Paris hosted the Olympics just two years ago, the city reportedly had 300,000 condoms set aside for the folks spending an inordinate amount of time in the Olympic Village. That’s a far cry from the 8,500 distributed in the '80s, and also a far cry from the number Italy apparently had available for participants, which allegedly was only 10,000 condoms at the start. This year, a local Italian paper La Stampa (via The Guardian) featured an athlete lamenting the supplies were gone in less than three days.
The supplies ran out in just three days. They promised us more will arrive, but who knows when?
Now, it’s worth pointing out there was a significantly larger number of athletes participating in the summer games two years ago. The numbers in Italy are around (just under) 3,000, whereas the Paris Olympic Village had to feed and house 10,500 athletes. It's not that there were no problems in Paris, as gross food was cited as a real issue, but there the condoms allotted were like two per day, per athlete. Here, it seems there were enough condoms for each athlete to just grab a couple and then they were all gone. (And you have to think there were some athletes dumping the whole container, right?)
These are the things we aren't seeing behind the scenes with our Peacock subscription, but athletes have been a bit more candid on social media.
Figure skater and former Olympian Adam Rippon spoke out about this condom phenomenon recently, explaining to fans the idea that there are just a bunch of horny Olympians out there is a misnomer. Apparently, because the condoms are marked as coming from the games, the athletes like to grab a handful of them as souvenirs. Really, if you think about it, it’s very responsible! Safe sex for months to come, and even for your friends!
