In the City of Love, Olympic officials are encouraging athletes to be intimate by handing out free lubricant and 200,000 condoms and opening an STD clinic.
This is in contrast to other sporting events, where intimate relationships are prohibited to enhance athletic performance.
So-called sex bans for athletes have existed for thousands of years, but their scientific basis is questionable.
For example, the ancient Greeks believed that semen contained divine energy and that ejaculating would drain a man’s energy.
More recently, it has been claimed that sex drains testosterone from the body, makes participants less aggressive, weakens their muscles, or exhausts them.
But while the science is far from settled, there is no hard evidence that sex significantly impairs athletic performance. In fact, there is some evidence that dating before an event can actually improve results.
Athletes to receive free condoms at Paris Olympics
Also in the City of Light, bags of lubricant are handed out to horny athletes
Condoms were also available for free at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil
Regardless of the scientific debate, dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge have seen a huge increase in users in the Olympic Village.
Fortunately, experts say, this policy of “free love” is unlikely to affect the outcome of any event.
A 2000 review of studies in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine found that little research has been done on this topic, but it did suggest that sex affects people differently.
“For some people, having sex the night before a game improves performance, while for others, it suffers,” the Canadian researchers said, adding that it would not have a major impact either way.
They said the long-held theory that athletes should abstain from sex before competitions is a “myth” and may stem from the misconception that “ejaculation depletes testosterone from the body.”
Exhaustion from sex probably doesn’t play a role, as they say, “normal sexual intercourse between married partners consumes only 25-50 calories, which is equivalent to walking up two flights of stairs.”
In 1995, a small study was conducted by the American Society of Exercise Physiologists tested 11 athletes on a treadmill, once before sex and again 12 hours after, and compared their performance.
The researchers found that intercourse had no effect on their aerobic power, oxygen pulse, heart rate, or blood pressure.
Lead researcher Tommy Boone wrote in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness: “The data suggest that it is justified to reject the view that intercourse reduces maximal athletic performance.”
Cardboard beds, introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, have returned to the Paris Games. There were rumors that they were “anti-sex” because they were too weak to carry two people, although organizers have denied this
British swimming champion Tom Daley tested his cardboard bed on social media and found it was strong enough to support powerful jumps
On forcing athletes to abstain from sexual activity, he added: ‘The reasoning behind such a policy seems to be related to the hypothesis that sexual intercourse reduces the ability of athletes to perform efficiently or maximally.
‘Most likely, the restrictions imposed on athletes have little to do with their physiological ability to sustain a given training intensity or achieve maximal performance.’
In 2016, scientists in Florence, Italy, reviewed all available evidence and concluded that athletes should be able to do this.
“Avoiding sexual activity before an athletic event is a controversial topic in the sports world,” wrote lead author Laura Stefani, a professor of sports medicine.
‘There is no robust scientific evidence to indicate that sexual activity has a negative effect on athletic performance.’
The researchers reviewed hundreds of studies that could potentially provide evidence, however large or small, about the influence of sexual activity on athletic performance.
One found that female athletes’ strength did not differ if they had sex the night before. Another even saw a beneficial effect on the performance of marathon runners.
The Olympic rings are on display on the Eiffel Tower, Sunday, July 14, 2024, in Paris
Dr. Stefani wrote in the journal Frontiers in Physiology: ‘We clearly show that this topic has not been well researched and has only been reported anecdotally.
‘In fact, the evidence suggests that sexual activity may have a beneficial effect on athletic performance unless it occurs less than two hours beforehand.’
Yet many athletes still abstain from lovemaking before a competition, either by choice or at the request of a trainer or coach.
Gareth Southgate is said to have banned English footballers from having sex before matches in major competitions, but the Three Lions have failed to win a single trophy under his leadership.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola also has a strict rule: players are not allowed to have sex after midnight.
During the 1998 World Cup in France, England manager Glenn Hoddle banned the players from having sex for the entire tournament, but they were still knocked out in the second round.
Cristiano Ronaldo (left) believes sex improves his game, while boxer Carl Froch (right) went sex-free for three months before knocking out George Groves in 2014.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali (left) abstained from sex for six weeks before a match, while Man Utd icon George Best (right) swore by a little sex
Football legend Pele believed in the rejuvenating effects of an intimate relationship before an important match
And during the 2010 World Cup, England manager Fabio Capello banned his players from having sex because he felt it was distracting.
In contrast, some of the biggest names in football claim that sex the night before a big match improves their performance.
Among them are Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazilian legend Pelé and Manchester United icon George Best.
Many boxers believe that sex has a detrimental effect. Muhammad Ali abstained for six weeks before a fight, and former British champion Carl Froch went three months without sex before knocking out George Groves in their 2014 world title fight.
When asked by Conan O’Brien in 2015 if he abstained from sex before fights, Irish MMA star Conor McGregor said, “That’s definitely a superstition that I don’t adhere to. I definitely have as much sex as possible.”
In the classic film Rocky, Mickey, the trainer of the eponymous boxer, warned him: ‘Women make legs weaker.’
Other, more realistic examples show mixed attitudes towards sex and athleticism.
Marty Liquori, formerly one of the world’s best 5,000-meter runners, once said, “Sex makes you happy, and happy people don’t run a mile in 3:47.”
Earlier this year, it was reported that 15-time golf champion Tiger Woods had stopped having sex in the run-up to the Masters, which he later lost.
American baseball legend Casey Stengel, who coached the New York Yankees in the 1950s, once said, “Being up all night with a woman never hurt a professional ballplayer. Staying up all night looking for a woman is fatal.”
The policy of banning athletes from sex was supported by some of history’s greatest thinkers. The Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 444 B.C., “Olympic competitors in races should avoid sexual intimacy.”
Fortunately for the horny Olympians in Paris, things have changed.
