The Summer Olympics are just a few weeks away, but the Tokyo organizers have already clinched a Gold Medal in mixed messaging. Singing, cheering and full seating at venues will be discouraged. Social distancing and AIDS awareness will be featured. Sexual activity between athletes will be encouraged through condom distribution.
Athletes will be the recipients of 150,000 condoms. But they’ve already been warned to practice social distancing and to use the condoms in their home countries, Reuters reports.
Sakura Murakami wrote that large numbers of condoms have been given out to Olympians starting with the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This practice is supposed to “raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, and organizers said the International Olympic Committee had requested their continued distribution.”
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NPR reported that 11,500 athletes from around the globe will compete in Tokyo. Doing the math, that equates to 13 condoms for each athlete. Almost enough for one sexual romp each day during the two-week Olympiad. That’s social distancing lite!
However, in a bizarre twist, athletes were told to maintain proper distance from each other. And that means “fewer opportunities to mingle and more,” writes Murakami. Olympic officials told her:
The distribution of condoms is not for use at the athlete's village, but to have athletes take them back to their home countries to raise awareness.
So despite the Olympic-proportion naivete here, it’s sex, drugs (?) and rock n' roll ahead in Olympic “condom” Village. Under the guise that male, female and, of course, transgender athletes will obediently stuff these caches of condoms into their luggage for transport home and later usage.
The here’s-a-boatload-of-condoms-just-don’t-use-them-here Games will, indeed, be part of a strange Olympic experience in 2021.
Overseas spectators are barred from traveling to Japan to attend the Games.
Furthermore, the fans in attendance are being asked to “show their support by clapping rather than cheering or singing to try and reduce the risk of spreading the virus,” Murakami reported. How very Gavin Newsome-esque! It was the freedom-squelching California governor who previously banned singing in churches.
But alas, a team of researchers at Lund University, in Sweden, has released a study finding that singing can be safely done during this pandemic. International Olympic Committee (IOC) fears of singing are really much ado about nothing.
Then there is the dining issue at Olympic Village, but don’t worry. The ever-so-wise Tokyo experts have that well under control, too. Instead of eating in a huge dining hall, athletes must dine alone and clean up surfaces after chowing down. The absurdity of this is so rich … for wrestlers who have been grunting and groaning with and sweating on each other in hand-to-hand combat. For basketball players guarding foes in close quarters. For distance runners clustered in dense packs for miles and miles.
After all this close contact, athletes also cannot high-five, hug or shake hands. What a joke!
American baseball stadiums are moving toward full capacity, but the Olympic Games are hesitant to do likewise.:
"Without the proper measures in place, it will only take one person to bring in the virus and spread it, especially in places like the athlete village," said Nobuhiko Okabe, an infectious disease specialist advising the Tokyo Olympic hosts on its coronavirus measures.
So, IOC officials are focused on social distancing, singing and cheering among fans. Despite the dining rules farce, on- and off-field proximity among athletes is no big deal. These Olympic Games will not medal in wisdom or logic.