Olympic protection

You’ll recall that there have been stories about the IOC and LOCOG getting all sniffy about enforcing the exclusivity clauses regarding their sponsoring corporations’ products. LOCOG’s Supreme Sport Lord even announced that you could be refused admission to an event if you, a paying ticket-holder, showed up in apparel advertising a sponsor’s competitor.

(Hey—maybe that’s why there have been so many empty seats at the various venues: those no-shows were banned for wearing Nike instead of Adidas; or a jacket touting Jaguar instead of BMW.)

But apparently there’s an official London 2012 prophylactic; and some wag has, er, salted the Olympic Village with a competitor’s party hats. Which naturally got tweeted and set the LOCOG brand Gestapo into overdrive trying to gather in all the contraband condoms.

Yes, there are to be no rubbers except those supplied by Durex, and I suppose a brand called Kangaroo Condoms (tagline: “For the gland downunder”) just really doesn’t speak to the Olympic Spirit.

What I find interesting is that, as a measure of its corporate largesse, Durex has already supplied 150,000 condoms to the 10,000 athletes, and they still have a few days to go. If they’ve already run out of prophylactics, then we really have to salute their energy and endurance. If past Olympics are any guide, 150,000 was kind of a lowball. US target shooter Josh Lakatos commented on the 2000 Games at Sydney: “I’ve never witnessed so much debauchery in my entire life.”

(Condoms have been supplied to Olympians ever since 1992. At the Beijing Games, they were printed with the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger”.)

Let me also say that, as a UCLA alumna, I’m relieved that at least the interlopers weren’t Trojans.