SportsSummer Olympics in Paris: Dating app access restricted for safety

Summer Olympics in Paris: Dating app access restricted for safety

Later this evening, the ceremonial inauguration of the Summer Olympics in Paris will take place. Representatives from many disciplines worldwide have already arrived at the village. However, athletes who wish to form closer relationships with people of the same sex may face considerable difficulties.

Geolocation has been blocked in the Grindr app within the Olympic village.
Geolocation has been blocked in the Grindr app within the Olympic village.
Images source: © Getty Images
Kamil Kozłowski

26 July 2024 15:04

Sports fans in various forms have been eagerly counting down to July 26. This evening, the eyes of the world will be on Paris, where the ceremonial opening of the XXXV Summer Olympics will occur. The lavishly planned show, inaugurating over two weeks of competition for the best performances by their home countries, will feature the biggest entertainment stars.

Thanks to access to many different social platforms, the conditions in the Olympic villages have stopped being an open secret. It must be admitted that the organizers are doing everything possible to ensure the world's capital of romance is not associated with romantic thrills for the Olympics participants. For the first time, they have introduced a restriction that is not to the liking of homosexual athletes.

Olympics participants will not log into Grindr

A user of the X platform, Louis Pisano, published surprising information on his profile. As we can read in his post, access to the most popular dating app dedicated to the LGBT community has been restricted in the Olympic village. This decision was made for safety reasons.

Olympic Games organizers decided to avoid in time the commotion comparable to that of 8 years ago. Back then, a British journalist created an account on the Grindr app to discover the identities of the athletes using it. Although he did not decide to reveal their names, detailed descriptions clearly suggested which athletes secretly arranged meetings with people of the same sex.

Nico Hines' article is as unethical as it is dangerous. Over 200 athletes from countries where being gay is punishable by death participate in the Olympic Games. His lack of understanding of their reasons for hiding is offensive and unacceptable - pointed out Hudson Taylor, Director of the Athlete Ally organization, which fights against discrimination among athletes based on sexual orientation, on NBC.

However, the long-standing tradition of distributing condoms to athletes in the Olympic villages has been maintained. A total of 300,000 contraceptives have been prepared with the note to test them only after the Games are over.

Paris Olympics
Paris Olympics© Getty Images
Grindr
Grindr© Getty Images
© Daily Wrap
·

Downloading, reproduction, storage, or any other use of content available on this website—regardless of its nature and form of expression (in particular, but not limited to verbal, verbal-musical, musical, audiovisual, audio, textual, graphic, and the data and information contained therein, databases and the data contained therein) and its form (e.g., literary, journalistic, scientific, cartographic, computer programs, visual arts, photographic)—requires prior and explicit consent from Wirtualna Polska Media Spółka Akcyjna, headquartered in Warsaw, the owner of this website, regardless of the method of exploration and the technique used (manual or automated, including the use of machine learning or artificial intelligence programs). The above restriction does not apply solely to facilitate their search by internet search engines and uses within contractual relations or permitted use as specified by applicable law.Detailed information regarding this notice can be found  here.