Tokyo Olympics organizers are handing out more than 150,000 condoms to athletes – but also asking recipients not to use them at the Olympic village

• Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics plan to hand out more than 150,000 condoms to athletes.
• They’ll also ask the more than 11,000 athletes at the games to continue social distancing.
• “The distributed condoms are not meant to be used at the Olympic Village,” an official told AFP.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics plan to hand out more than 150,000 condoms to the world’s top athletes – but will also ask them to not use them at the Olympic village, according to multiple reports.

The organizing committee made the request last week, Agence France-Presse reported.

The wire service said Japan’s condom industry feared an “anticlimax” at the event, which is expecting to bring more than 11,000 athletes to Tokyo. Many will stay in the Olympic Village.

Condoms have been handed out to Olympians since at least the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, about 110,000 condoms were handed out, Insider reported at the time.

About 100,000 were distributed during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. About 450,000 male and female condoms were handed out at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Athletes arriving in Tokyo this summer will be told to continue social distancing. They’ll be asked to bring the condoms to their home countries as a way of raising awareness of HIV and AIDS, Reuters reported.

When the International Olympic Committee rolled out its rules in February, they included a ban on physical contact between athletes. RT reported on the social media backlash, quoting a Twitter user who said there would be a “0% chance they will not be having sex.”