Paris is known as one of the most romantic cities in the world and organizers of this summer’s Olympic Games are making sure that the athletes are prepared, should the mood be right.
And they are taking the phrase “better safe than sorry” to a whole new level.
According to Laurent Michaud, the director of the 2024 Paris Village, there will be hundreds of thousands of condoms available to the athletes in town for the Games.
“We are aiming to have 300,000 condoms here at disposal for the athletes in the village,” Michaud told Sky News. “It’s a quantity to make sure everybody would have what they are expecting and what they need.
“We want to create some places where the athletes will feel very enthusiastic and comfortable so they can have some conversations, discussions and to share their core values about sports.”
If you think that number is very much on the high side, you would be correct.
When considering that the village will host roughly 9,000 athletes and the Games run from July 26 to Aug. 11, that would mean every athlete could use two condoms per day.
Of course, given that these athletes are in town to compete at the highest levels of their sport, having enough energy for that amount of extra-curricular action may be a tough ask. But, of course, these are the best of the best we’re talking about.
“It is very important that the conviviality here is something big,” Michaud said. “Working with the athletes commission, we wanted to create some places where the athletes would feel very enthusiastic and comfortable.”
With the previous Summer Games taking place in Tokyo and delayed from 2020 until 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes were under a so-called “intimacy ban” and physical distancing was enforced for obvious reasons.
With the pandemic having died down, those measures are in the rear-view mirror.
Michaud also said that the athletes would have access to a Village Club with a lounge, but it will not serve alcohol.
“WS have made a Village Club with a lounge with a sports bar with Coca-Cola,” Michaud said. “And I mean, no alcohol, of course, over there. But it’s going to be a great place, so they can actually share their moment and environment here.
“No champagne in the village, of course, but they can have all the champagne they want also in Paris.”