The Olympics: an event where the world’s most talented athletes unite during the day to compete and show what the human body is truly capable of. But by night, something completely different takes place, and the Olympic Village becomes home to an open secret: it is the perfect place for hookups.
“There’s sex happening in the laundry room, and even in the basements of the buildings,” explained Australian basketball player Marena Whittle to the Daily Telegraph.
Highlights
- Australian basketball player Marena Whittle revealed that sex happens in laundry rooms and basements at the Olympic Village.
- Retired gold medal diver Matthew Mitcham described the athletes' village as a bizarre utopia where everyone is tall, beautiful, and fit.
- Dating apps like Tinder have seen a 25% increase in activity during the Olympics, with users hoping to match with Olympians.
Authorities have long tried to control the consequences of their stars’ libidos. The 2016 Rio Olympics, for example, 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, a number that has steadily increased over the years.
From laundry rooms to bridges and secret areas, Olympians have gotten creative with their escapades. Now one of the athletes has decided to reveal what the new spots are where action is sure to take place.
Dark spots, basements, laundry rooms, and under bridges—an Olympian reveals the “hidden spots” where her fellow athletes are hooking up
Image credits:tomdaley
“In our village we’ve got so many hidden little spots – there’s a bridge, an underpass… lots of areas that people can take full advantage of,” continued Whittle.
The athlete recounted going out to blow off some steam with her team on Sunday (August 4) after their loss to Canada in the quarter-finals, only to come back to the Village at 2 am to find her colleagues engaged in all sorts of raunchy activities.
Other competitors have also chimed in to share their own experiences over the years.
“The athletes’ village is a bizarre utopia where everyone is tall, beautiful and perfect with amazing bodies and virile and full of energy and endurance and strength,” explained retired gold medal diver Matthew Mitcham in another interview.
The escapades reach a fever pitch in the hours following the closing ceremony, as athletes are free from their duties and have plenty of time to relax and explore the possibilities at their reach.
According to Cate Campbell, a retired swimmer with eight Olympic medals, it is rowers, water polo players, and rugby stars who are most likely to get frisky in the Olympic village, as she explained in a radio interview.
Whittle also dismantled the notion that the infamous cardboard beds the stars have had to sleep in this year were made to be “anti-sex.”
“You could do a backflip and land on the bed and it wouldn’t break,” she explained.
Dating apps have seized the opportunity to increase their business, with hopeful users trying desperately to match with Olympians
Image credits: joefraser1
Businesses have already started to feel the impact of the Olympic Village’s atmosphere, for better or for worse.
Tinder, for example, has taken full advantage of the opportunity and has openly promoted its premium service by promising users a chance to “match with pro athletes using [its] new feature.”
Spokespersons for the company have revealed that the Olympics have been a massive boon for the app, which has seen a 25% increase in activity since the event started at the end of July.
The possibility of hooking up with an Olympian has many users changing their geolocation to Paris, adjusting their interests to gymnastics and basketball along the way. This, in turn, has made the app a hassle for actual athletes looking for ways to flirt with one another.
Such is the case of Emily Delleman, a rower for Team USA, who recounted her experience with the app in a TikTok video.
“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 remembered thinking. “But no, I’m like one-mile radius, and so far, I think I’ve seen a total of two other Olympians.”
Image credits: matthewmitcham88
Grindr, a dating app for queer men, has taken a different approach and decided to disable its geolocation services in the Olympic Village to protect users from being forcibly outed for their usage.
"If an athlete is not out or comes from a country where being LGBTQ+ is dangerous or illegal, using Grindr can put them at risk of being outed by curious individuals who may try to identify and expose them on the app," a blog post from the app reads.
According to the Daily Telegraph, so far, there have been around 300,000 condoms distributed to the athletes at the Paris Olympics, a lower number than the ones at the 2016 Rio edition, but a very high amount nonetheless.
“A lot of them will be used as balloons. Some will be used as face stockings to make you look like Noddy with his hat on,” Mitcham says. “And then, of course, there’s some sex. People are literally there to go out and get f**ked up.”