Grindr announces special features to help athletes connect in the Olympic Village
Dating app Grindr also ensures that Olympians can safely enjoy their time at the 2026 Games, even outside the competition.
Grindr, which specializes in location-based dating for the LGBTQ+ community, “addressed serious security and privacy concerns, especially for those who are not outdoors or from countries where being gay is dangerous or illegal” during the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.
The app has disabled the scouting and roaming features within the boundaries of the Olympic Villages, meaning no one outside the area can see or message anyone inside.
Grindr has also disabled the approximate distance display, so users can see exactly how far away a potential match may be, down to the number of meters. Users can reactivate this feature if they wish.
The app offers “unlimited disappearing messages and the ability to unsend messages to both free and premium subscribers” for those in the village.
Grindr has also disabled third-party advertising and only publishes Grindr for Equality posts.
Throughout the duration of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Grindr will send users “weekly reminders about risks specific to the Olympic environment, links to our multilingual safety and privacy guides, and personal and in-app safety resources from the International Olympic Committee.”
“To the trailblazing athletes heading to Italy, we are proud to support you and can’t wait to see you shine,” Grindr said in a press release this week.
Sex in the Olympic Village has been a hot topic for decades, with the ‘anti-sex’ beds at the 2024 Summer Olympics going viral.
The beds weren’t necessarily an effective deterrent for everyone, like Team USA fencer Miles Chamley-Watson told exclusively We weekly.
“Listen, if you want to get it done, you’re going to get it done,” Chamley-Watson, 36, said from the village in July 2024. “To each their own.”
Former Team USA women’s soccer goalkeeper Hope solo got candid to ESPN about escapades at the Olympics, saying, “If you don’t have discipline, the village can be a huge distraction.”
“With a unique experience you want to build memories, whether it’s sexual, partying or on the field,” Solo, 44, said in 2012. “I’ve seen people having sex in the open air. On the grass, between buildings, people get dirty.”
She added: “I may have smuggled a celebrity back into my room without anyone knowing, and then smuggled him out again. But that’s my Olympic secret.”
The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially here – and Team USA arrives in Italy with star power, storylines and sky-high expectations. As the world’s best athletes descend on Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, all eyes are on the Americans: from Ilia Malinin’s unmissable moment in men’s figure skating to Mikaela Shiffrin’s long-awaited redemption tour at […]
Team Great Britain footballer Micah Richards recalled “a huge room full of condoms” during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
“It was like ‘What!?’ It was clear that I was promoting safe sex and, honest to God, I was on fire,” Richards, 37, said. Gary Lineker And Alan Scheerder on the podcast ‘The rest is football’.
“I was really on fire, honestly. I was a little bit leaner, a little bit more ripped, a little bit skinnier, it was summer and I was walking around with my top off. One of the best times of my life, it was incredible.”
Team American swimmer Ryan Lochte estimates that 70 to 75 percent of athletes have sex in the village, and told ESPN in 2012 that having a girlfriend during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was “a big mistake.”
