Young men and women, toned bodies, hormones at an all-time high, and the excitement of travel sound like the perfect ingredients for romance to occur. This is the atmosphere of the Olympic Village, a name for the athlete-only living installations created to house athletes during the festivities.
In previous editions, the place has gained a reputation for the steamy antics of its residents, who have flooded the place with up to 200,000 condoms. However, for Emily Delleman, a rower for Team USA, the experience has not been all that it was hyped up to be.
Highlights
- Team USA's rower, Emily Delleman was excited to use 'Olympic Village Tinder' but was disappointed by the lack of Olympians.
- Olympic Village has a reputation for hookups, distributing up to 200,000 condoms in past events.
- Tinder's location feature caused non-Olympians to appear in searches, frustrating athletes looking for fellow Olympians.
The “Olympic Village Tinder,” as the name suggests, is a special location setting that users can access during the event, and it was created to help athletes find love with one another, taking advantage of the perfect storm of peak human beauty that is the Olympics.
“So I was going to take full advantage of this. I haven’t had this app downloaded in years,” Delleman says in the clip, revealing that this wasn’t her first rodeo with the dating app. “So, I start scrolling and scrolling, and I’m not seeing any Olympians.”
A US athlete gives her first-hand testimony on what using the “Olympic Village Tinder” is really like
Image credits: happydelly
The athlete from Davenport uploaded her, at the time of writing, first and only TikTok clip on July 26, 2024, in which she begins by talking about how amazing everything has been for her in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Not even the newly implemented cardboard beds and enforced vegan diets, which drew criticism from other athletes, were enough to dissuade the US rower. From the food to the ambiance and clothing, everything seemed to be going perfectly for Delleman.
While recovering from a recent competition, she found herself scrolling through TikTok and found what seemed to be the perfect ingredient to take her experience to the next level.
“So, I was laying in my cardboard bed the other day recovering, and I was scrolling through TikTok,” the athlete recounts. “And I was seeing the girlies saying, ‘Hey, change your location to the Olympic Village. Like, do you want babies?’ and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, genius.’”
Image credits: happydelly
The Tinder recommendation brought her nostalgic memories of having used the app in the past, but this time, something new caught her attention. “Match with pro athletes using our new feature,” the App Store page read.
“I was getting excited. The expectations were rising,” said Delleman. “I was imagining scoping out the prospects, getting hyped up.”
Soon, anticipation led to disappointment when she found herself scrolling through endless profiles, with no Olympians to be seen. “At first, I was like, 'Okay, my settings must be weird,'” she remembers thinking. “But no, I’m like one-mile radius, and so far, I think I’ve seen a total of two other Olympians.”
“I mean don’t get me wrong, you Parisian men are beautiful, chefs kiss, like, I don’t know what they put in the water,” she added.
“But you know I went in with the expectations of finding some of my future plot lines, but alas, I guess we’re searching for other forms of entertainment, and that’s why you’re finding me on TikTok,” stated the Olympian.
Tinder took advantage of the occasion by promoting their Premium service, which allows anyone, anywhere, to change their location, leading to Olympians not being able to find each other on the app
Her video soon became viral, with many finally getting to hear a first-hand account of what it’s like to be in the middle of a perfect hook-up setting such as the Olympics.
So far, the video has garnered more than 1,600 comments and 230,000 likes. It even caught the attention of the official Tinder account, which responded to the video with, “Someone tag me in part 2.”
For many viewers, the source of Delleman’s woes lies in the fact that many people are intentionally changing their locations to the Olympic Village and getting their profiles shown, even if they are not in the immediate vicinity.
This feature has been made exclusive to Tinder Premium-only accounts, which means there’s an incentive for the company to keep things as is, much to the disappointment of the US rower.
Other users, such as Sofia Elizabeth, have already started sharing their own tips on how to match with Olympic athletes.
Image credits: sofiaelizabethsbackup
In her clip, which has more than 40,000 likes, she guides users on how to change their location and how to start a conversation with the Olympians.
“Flights to Paris are only $300 bucks right now,” she adds as a final tip at the end in case anyone is lucky enough to get a match.
Image credits: sofiaelizabethsbackup
“Everyone is setting their location there so you're getting all the people who moved their location plus the olympians, plus all the locals,” explained one viewer.
The Olympic Games have a long history of being the perfect place for hookups and fling encounters, with condom orders increasing steadily since the 80s
Sex, hookups, and dating have always been a mainstay of the Olympics, with condoms being freely distributed to athletes in ever-rising numbers following their demand.
The first reports date back to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when 8,500 prophylactics were ordered. The sexual activity was so high that they had to officially ban outdoor encounters for all athletes due to condoms being found on the streets and even on rooftops across the city.
Numbers kept rising in the following years. For example, the 2012 London Olympics were dubbed “the raunchiest Games ever,” seeing a total of 150,000 devices allocated for its athletes.
Four years later, the 2016 Rio Olympics set records at the time for ordering more than 450,000 rubber contraceptives, meaning that each one of the 10,500 competitors was allocated an average of 42 protectives.
Viewers expecting a raunchy and exciting account of the athlete’s adventures in the famous Olympic Village were left disappointed after hearing her tale
Image credits: Sheng Jiapeng/Getty
Even if the Olympian’s account is relatively new, she has already accrued close to 14,000 followers, many of whom shared in her disappointment at Tinder’s handling of its matchmaking algorithm, which only got worse once the official account of the company replied, leading to many redirecting their criticism at them.
“That’ll be $29.99,” said one viewer, referring to the premium service able to change geolocation.
“Tinder doesn’t care about dating, they care about our money. Tinder has been falling behind in the app game,” stated another.
“If you wanna be included, pay extra loser. Fix your algorithms,” one user complained.
Many of Delleman’s new fans suggested she drop the dating app altogether and opt to meet people in person instead.
“Girl don’t scroll on tinder, just go walk around the village and find them in person,” said one viewer. “She literally said she had to rest,” replied a fan, to which another retorted, “That girl trying to ‘f.’ Do you think she’s worried about rest?”
One commenter even joked about the infamous cardboard beds. “They really thought them cardboard beds would stop y’all from gettin busy.”
Women’s rowing competition is set to continue with the single culls semifinals on August 1, 2024, and you can catch the broadcast on NBC Peacock.
"I haven't found a single one," stated one user as many more joined the race to get themselves a date with an Olympic athlete
