Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes

February 24, 2010 6:07 PM |
By John Shmuel
Story provided by
Rowdy curling crowds; spontaneous street parties; public drunkeness. You don\'t have to look far for evidence that the crowds at Winter Games in Vancouver know how to have a good time.

And, as if anymore proof is needed that a wild Olympic atmosphere permeates B.C.\'s largest city, now there\'s an apparent condom shortage.

That\'s right. As you read this, an emergency shipment of condoms is desperately making its way across Canada to the West Coast city.

Health officials in Vancouver have already provided 100,000 free condoms to the roughly 7,000 ahtletes and officials at the Games. That\'s about 14 condoms per person. But as of Wednesday, those supplies started running dangerously low.

So naturally, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research decided to step and make sure there were no hitches in Olympic action.

When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to respond immediately, said Kerry Whiteside, CANFAR\'s Executive Director. The organization assembled three large boxes of about 8,500 condoms, much to the relief of libidos at the Olympic Village. They\'re expected to arrive on Thursday.

Free condoms first started to be distributed at the Olympics in Barcelona at the 1992 Games. This appears to be the first time that a shortage has struck the Games.