Grindr disables location feature to protect athletes during Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics are set to begin on Friday (6 February), and more is being found out about the athletes as days go by.

While we're all able to watch them compete in their respective sports, questions are always raised when it comes to what happens in the Olympic Village. This is where athletes must stay for the duration of their time at the games, and according to past competitors, it's also where they get it on with one another.

Despite the apparent hotspot for sportspeople, Grindr has turned off its location services in a controversial move.

In case you doubted that Olympians get it on in the village, Skeleton racer John Daly previously told Cosmopolitan in 2018: "Incredibly good-looking [athletes], perfect bodies, tight Spandex... of course there's gonna be some hooking up!

"Would you expect anything else!?"

The Olympic Village in Milan will not have full access to Grindr (Lu Lin/CHINASPORTS/VCG via Getty Images)

Others have been incredibly open about having a lot of sex with their peers at the games in the past, which may happen again at this year's instalment of the Winter Games.

British ice skater Phebe Bekker took to TikTok to show fans that athletes were given actual mattresses this year, instead of cardboard beds, which were used in the past to throw a spanner in the works of any sexual activities. They looked a lot stronger than cardboard beds that were previously used, which is good news for those looking to get lucky in the Italian city.

However, it looks like some people may be getting c**k-blocked by an app renowned for helping people hook up.

Dating app Grindr is said to have disabled its location feature in the Milano-Cortina Olympic Village ahead of this month's Games, as they explain that it's all to protect LGBTQ+ athletes from 'real safety risks'.

Grindr is known for helping users discover others nearby and see their distance, but it has been restricted for athletes in the village this year.Describing itself to be 'the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people', they claimed that turning off location features were ne cessary as 'those same features may become a liability', in the context of the Olympics.

"When the Olympics come around, athletes face a level of global attention that doesn’t exist anywhere else — on the podium and off," a statement from Grindr read.

It went on: "For gay athletes, especially those who aren’t out or who come from countries where being gay is dangerous or illegal, that visibility creates real safety risks."

The dating app claimed that it is protecting athletes from 'real safety risks' (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The statement further read: "Grindr shows users who’s nearby and how far away they are. In most contexts, that’s useful. In the Olympic Village where thousands of athletes are packed into a small area, those same features may become a liability.

"Someone outside the Village could browse profiles inside it. Distance data could be used to pinpoint someone’s exact location. And simply appearing on Grindr tells the world something about a person’s identity that, in more than 60 countries, remains a criminal offence."

This isn't the first time Grindr has restricted location visibility at the Games though, having done the same at the 2022 Winter Olympics and again at the Paris Summer Games in 2024.

Grindr is set to send athletes weekly reminders about risks to do with the Olympic environment, even offering free access to paywalled features such as disappearing messages and being able to unsend messages and blocking screenshots.

The feature which allows users to view a video just once, has also been turned off in the Village.