Olympics 2012 - 16

CONDOM GATE

There has been much written about the “must use” only Olympic sponsors items at the Olympics, though judging by the number of luminous yellow NIKE shoes one sees the athletes running in on the track Adidas have right to be a little miffed. Now comes fresh news of trouble with the “Official Olympic Condom”

Don’t mess with the official condom of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

That’s essentially the message being sent by LOCOG, the organizing committee of these games, after a bucket of unauthorized condoms was discovered in the Olympic Village.

Condom-gate came to light when Australian BMX cyclist Caroline Buchanan posted a photo of the bucket on her Twitter account, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The bucket was adorned with a sign bearing the message, “Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder," and a photo of a boxing kangaroo.

Organizers of the London Games, following a tradition started in Barcelona in 1992 and backed by the IOC, placed 150,000 free Durex condoms in dispensers for the more than 10,000 athletes competing this summer. Durex paid for the right to supply the condoms.

LOCOG officials are trying to determine how the Kangaroo condoms got into the athletes village, a spokeswoman told The Guardian. The condoms apparently came from Durex rivals Ansell Ltd., an Australian company, and Pasante, a private British firm.

The number of condoms supplied at London broke the record of 100,000 offered in Beijing four years ago. Organizers of the 2000 Sydney Games had to pull out an additional 20,000 condoms after the athletes worked their way through the initial allocation of 70,000.

Those who watched the women's vault final on Sunday probably saw American gymnastMcKayla Maroney visibly less than enthused about grabbing the silver medal in the competition. (We need not look further than Maroney appearing to snub a Russian competitor's congratulatory hug, which many interpreted as intentional.) Maroney is the defending world champion on the apparatus and was the favorite coming into the event following her seemingly flawless vault in the team final, so her dismay was understandable.

Now a meme involving a photo of Maroney on the medal stand that night with a begrudging look on her face is making inroads in the online humor community. It's even spawned its own Tumblr page. Here are some of our favorites of "McKayla is Not Impressed":

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

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