In the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics, which will kick off on 27th July, a new book has revealed just what goes on at Olympic Villages worldwide and no matter which country hosts it, it’s always a struggle keeping booze and condoms in strong supply.
According to the anonymously authored expose ‘The Secret Olympics’, which is written by a former British competitor, organisers supplied 70,000 condoms to athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The stockpile ran out in a week.
While alcohol and drugs are banned at Olympic Villages, competitors often fill water bottles with booze and smuggle in weed and doping agents.
While officials don’t condone such behaviour, they don’t condemn it either, and the only thing that matters is that the image of the Olympics remains unsullied.
“What happens in the Village stays in the Village,” the New York Post quoted the anonymous author as writing.
Olympic Villages are vast, pre-fab communities, divided into smaller subdivisions by nation.
The United States’ area has a 24-hour McDonald’s, as well as sponsored beer halls – a Budweiser House and a Heineken House.
Everything is free including the unlimited supply of condoms, stamped with sports-specific logos.
Olympians, however, say that the insatiable demand for condoms is a giant practical joke.
“It’s a tradition — taking so many that they have to replace them,” Todd Lodwick, the 35-year-old-five-time Olympic Nordic combined athlete and a two-time gold medallist, said.
“It’s a myth: ‘Oh, look at all the sex these Olympians are having!’” he added.
