At the Albertville winter Olympics, condom machines in the athletes’ village had to be refilled every two hours. And in Sydney the organisers’ original order of 70,000 condoms went so fast that they had to order 20,000 more. Even with the replenishment, the supply was exhausted three days before the end of the competition schedule. (For the record, athletes who were in Sydney report that the Cuban delegation was the first to use up its allocation.) Salt Lake City in 2002 went even bigger: 250,000 condoms were handed out, despite the objections of the city’s Mormon leadership.
I handed out some of those condoms back in 2002 and while athletes and out-of-town visitors were very happy to get them, most locals were indeed very upset. Several yelled nasty things at me and the organization for which I worked received hundreds of angry phone calls. Utah is not a sex-friendly place, safe-sex or not.
Um… considering our birthrates, I’d have to say that we are, indeed, “sex-friendly”.
: )