The magic statistic ahead of each games is the number of condoms distributed. It started with the 1988 reveal that 8500 were made available for almost the same number of athletes in Seoul.
The big talk in South Korea, however, was where the condoms were being used. Some athletes allegedly loved doing it on the roofs so much that condoms were found on the tops of residences most days, leading the Olympic Association to take the extraordinary step of banning outdoor sex.
The Barcelona Olympics in 1992 saw condom distribution increase more than ten-fold to 90,000, though this dropped four years later when the show rolled into the comparatively conservative Atlanta, Georgia with just 15,000 provided.
Organisers thought they’d be covered with 70,000 condoms for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, but within a week they had to order 20,000 more. Village folklore was created when shooter Josh Lakatos disobeyed team orders to return to America, instead picking the lock on an empty village apartment where he and his pals crashed and every athlete came to party. The next eight days were filled with wild hedonism that would have put the ancient Greeks to shame. “I’m running a friggin’ brothel in the Olympic Village!” Lakatos told ESPN in 2012, recalling the moment he realised what was happening. “I’ve never witnessed so much debauchery in my entire life.”
