Athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics have been keeping busy during their downtime in the Village — a bit too busy.
There reportedly has been a shortage of condoms at the Winter Games in Milano-Cortina, with athletes having scooped up almost 10,000 condoms in just three days.
“The supplies sold out in just three days,” an anonymous athlete told Italian newspaper La Stampa. “They promised us more will arrive but who knows when.”
The shortage comes after organizers delivered a message aiming to to promote safe sex and positive sexual health among competitors.
“Health first: Prevention and common sense” was the slogan used when condoms were handed out while Attilio Fontana, the governor of Lombardy, included a symbol of the region on the packets.
Spanish figure skater Olivia Smart posted a video on Instagram of the condoms from inside the Village with the wrappers displaying the Lombardy Region logo.
“I found them,” she said in the clip. “They have everything you need.”
However, supplies have run dry and organizers have yet to comment on when more condoms will be back in stock for the nearly 2,000 athletes staying in the villages.
How are athletes getting by while eagerly awaiting a resupply of protection?
“You have to use your imagination,” the anonymous athlete told the outlet, noting that many athletes are spending their downtime playing PlayStation while awaiting a restocking of supplies.
Athletes in the Olympic Villages — there are six this year, given how geographically spread out these Games are — have another thing going in their favour as well, when condoms come back in stock.
The beds at this years Olympics are a big upgrade over previous editions. During the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, beds in the dorms were made from cardboard in a bid to promote sustainability. At the Tokyo Games, similar beds were used as a way to hinder “intimacy” among the athletes due to the threat of COVID-19.
How many condoms have been handed out at past Olympics?
Providing sexual protection has long been a staple of Olympic organizers, dating back to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, 300,000 condoms reportedly were made available to athletes — which actually was down from the 450,000 supplied for the 2016 Game in Rio de Janeiro.
While there roughly are five times the amount of athletes at a Summer Games, the amount of condoms per person at Milano-Cortina pales in comparison. So far, Olympians in Italy have been allotted an average of two condoms per person while it was around 20 per athlete in Paris.
In a touch of irony, news of the shortage comes on International Condoms Day, which is observed annually on Feb. 13 “to promote condom use as an effective measure for preventing unplanned pregnancies and reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.”