Olympics to Have Record Number of Condoms for Athletes In Wake of Zika

Olympians are set to arrive to Rio’s Olympic Village on Sunday.

And its amenities? They include a 24–hour cafeteria, air conditioning, and 450,000 condoms.

Not all condoms will look like this traditional condom. For every seven traditional male condoms, there will be two female condoms at the games.

Some may be quick to say the number of condoms – three times higher than the London games in 2012 – is to help reduce the threat of Zika virus.

To an extent, that’s true.

But North Dakota health officials say there are other issues to worry about, as athletes from all over the worlds share their bodies – and potential viruses – together.

“They’re wanting to prevent HIV. They’re wanting to prevent Hepatitis B,” Lindsey Vanderbusch with the North Dakota Department of Health said. “Most people in the United States have been vaccinated for Hepatitis B, but it’s a virus that is common in other parts of the world.”

Rio de Janeiro is currently in its winter season, a time that makes it harder to transmit the Zika virus through mosquitoes.

Yet it can still be transmitted sexually more than a month after someone begins to show symptoms of the virus.

“The longest noted sexual transmission was somewhere between 32–41 days after the onset of symptoms,” Laura Cronquist of the North Dakota Department of Health said.

It’s only a matter of weeks until athletes get physical for Olympic gold.

Yet the IOC hopes that the complimentary protection provides winners and losers a silver lining for their safety.

STD rates tend to be higher for those under the age of 29.

Data for this year’s athletes isn’t available yet, but the average age of competitors from the 2012 games was 26.