Life
With the 2018 Winter Olympics in full swing in PyeongChang, South Korea, dating app usage is in full swing, too. During the last several Olympic Games, a ton of people have used dating apps in Olympic Village, the college campus-type area that houses the athletes. And to prepare for all the sex that may be had, free condoms were distributed, too. For instance, at this year’s Winter Games, PyeongChang distributed 110,000 condoms to the 2,925 Olympic athletes… which comes out to 37 condoms per athlete. That’s a lot of sex.
Regarding the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a sex therapist and clinical psychologist at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City, spoke to ABC News about the Olympic Village culture. She attended several Olympic Games, as well as toured the Olympic Villages. “You see how isolated the environment is,” she told ABC News. “…It’s like making the ingredients of a huge stew — a stew of sexual ingredients. There is stress, which causes tension, and anxiety and energy, and a massive outpouring of chemicals in the body — adrenaline and endorphins. It’s a powerful concoction of chemicals.”
As far as the dating apps themselves are concerned, Olympic athletes have talked about their popularity, too. “Tinder in the Olympic Village is next level,” Jamie Anderson, the American snowboarder who won gold in the slopestyle event in Sochi, told Us Weekly. “It’s all athletes! In the mountain village it’s all athletes. It’s hilarious. There are some cuties on there.” However, she also told Us Weekly that she ended up deleting the app to put more focus on the Games. However, people do not seem to be deleting their apps in PyeongChang.
Below are some fascinating facts about some of the top dating apps at this year’s Olympic Games and at past games, because non-athletes can actually get in on the action too.
1
Tinder Usage Is WAY Up
You may remember Tinder usage going WAY up during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And, yes, it is WAY up once again at the 2018 Winter Games. Overall, so far, it has increased by 348 percent, including a 571 percent increase in swipe volume, a 565 percent increase in right swipes, and a 644 percent increase in matches leading up to the event. Is anyone surprised? Tinder seems to never *not* be popular, Olympics or not, though the Olympics definitely seem like a perfect place to swipe.
2
Anyone Can Swipe On Athletes In The Olympic Village On Tinder
According to a Tinder spokesperson, there has been a 1,850 percent increase in Tinder users who are Passporting to the Olympic Villages. Meaning, if someone is using Tinder outside of PyeongChang, like in Chicago, they can change their location on the app and swipe and match with people at the Olympics, athletes included — but to use the Passport feature, you need Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold. Speaking of which...
3
Tinder Gold Is Free For Users In The Olympic Village This Year
Tinder’s letting those in Olympic Village use Tinder Gold for free during the Games. So if you want to match with an Olympic athlete from home, now is your chance — just make sure you have Tinder Gold, too. TBH, who wouldn’t want to give it a try?
4
In Rio, Happn Was Happenin’ With More Users
Happn, the dating app that uses geotracking to let you know fellow Happners you’ve crossed paths with, had an increase in users at the 2016 Rio Games. Every day, each Happn user in Rio crossed paths with around 380 other Happn users, which was a seven percent increase compared to a usual day in the city.
5
In Rio, More Cross-Cultural “Crushes” Happened On Happn
Percentage-wise in Rio, of the Happn users crossing paths with approximately 380 other Happn users, 10 percent of active users were non-Brazilians, and cross-cultural crushes (aka when two users both like each other) represented 11 percent in total.
6
These 5 Nationalities Used Happn The Most In Rio
As for who used Happn most during the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazilians came in first place, followed by Americans, Argentinians, Brits, and the French. “The Olympic Village is the ideal place to connect on Happn,” Claire Certain, Happn’s Head of Trends, tells Bustle. “Indeed, on your timeline, you can see people with whom you’ve crossed paths with in a 250m radius. Our users are encouraged to meet quickly in real life thanks to our See You There feature, which allows you to put what you are up to (go for a drink, go for a walk, ready to party…) on your profile.”
7
Bumble Users Right-Swiped More In Rio
Back in Rio in 2016, dating app Bumble, too, saw an increase in users via right swipes, 200+ percent, particularly among females. Bumble is the app where women make the first move in heterosexual matches and have 24 hours to message their match; in same-sex pairings, either person can message within the 24 hours. “Women are usually very selective on Bumble, but in Rio they were much more likely to swipe right,” a Bumble representative tells Bustle. “Potential matches there were really catching their eye, and it may be due to the fact that so many Olympians were using the app!”
8
Most PlentyOfFish (POF) Users Think Olympic Athletes Are Sexy
PlentyOfFish (POF), one of the few dating apps where you can use a username instead of linking to your Facebook profile, i.e., and using your real first name on the app, did some Olympic-related research. During the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, POF conducted a survey of more than 500 singles in the U.S. to reveal their attitudes toward the Olympic Games. They found that 44 percent of singles watched the Olympics because the athletes are sexy — 51 percent of single men and 32 percent of single women.
9
POF Users Like To Fantasize About Olympic Athletes
In the same POF survey in 2014 of more than 500 singles in the U.S., the app found that some of its users liked to fantasize about Olympic athletes — 33 percent of men and 14 percent of women.
10
On POF This Year, Users Who Mention Winter Olympic Sports Are Getting More Messages
Revolving around the Olympics this year, POF pulled data from a sample size of around eight million user profiles and found that those even *mentioning* Winter Olympic sports on their profiles are receiving more attention. Users who listed one or more of the following Winter Olympic sports saw a 10 percent increase in messages (received week-over-week versus users who didn’t list the sports): hockey, skiing, bobsleigh, skating, curling, and snowboarding.
11
POF Users Who Both Like This Sport Are Messaging More
Also according to POF’s recent data, users who mutually share the interest of “hockey” exchange 27 percent more messages between each other than users who don’t have a mutual interest in the aforementioned sports above: skiing, bobsleigh, skating, curling, and snowboarding.
As you can see, Olympics after Olympics, dating app usage seems to increase at Olympic Village during the games, which makes complete sense. After all, since there’s no longer the being-on-a-dating site/app stigma that there used to be, why shouldn’t Olympic athletes swipe right and match with people, too? As long as they go for the gold first, medal-wise, then they can go for the gold, match-wise, too.
