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.”
