North Texas Daily

One hundred and ten thousand.

That is the number of texts I’ll get from my mom after she reads this article.

Just kidding. That was the number of condoms provided to athletes competing in the Pyeongchang Olympics this year, because apparently, Olympians are known to have a lot of sex.

Can I get a “hell yeah?”

It makes sense; thousands of confined, chiseled athletes waiting around for their respective events with nothing better to do than each other. Why not have a sex party?

This is a thing every year. Different contraceptive companies donate their products to the Games and are distributed throughout the Olympic Village in restrooms, medical centers, media centers and so forth. This year, Convenience broke the record for donating the most condoms to the Winter Olympics in history at 110,000 (not to be outdone by the 2016 Rio Olympics’ condom total of 450,000 — the cold inhibits them a little).

I think this was a very wholesome gesture. If you know your country is hosting 2,925 Olympians who love to bang, the responsible thing to do is provide them with the necessary means to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. You can imagine how an itchy crotch could affect your athletic performance.

I’m glad the Olympics took this proactive approach instead of ignoring the issue and pretending it isn’t happening, much like abstinence-only sex education, which is about as effective as fixing a crack in Hoover Dam with a Band-Aid.

In fact, the Olympics could take things a few steps further and use this as an opportunity to actually advocate for better sex education. Imagine a Olympics-certified PSA with Adam Rippon talking about the importance of safe sex. He’s a gold-winning Olympic athlete. People would listen to him.

The Olympics could also embrace sex positivity in this way. It is important to start educating kids on sex early, before they start actually doing it. And it is also important for them to know there is nothing wrong or shameful about sex. Using a few decorated, sex-loving Olympians to erase the stigma seems like an obvious choice.

Teens know what sex is. Not talking about it (or forcing them to abstain) only perpetuates the misinformation, secrecy and negative ideas surrounding the topic.

Hopefully the progressive attitudes about sex at the Olympics continues and one day we’ll see Sanya Richards-Ross having a sit-down interview with Anderson Cooper talking about her favorite sex positions.

Featured Image: Illustration by Austin Banzon