Camilla Jessen
Why Grindr changed how it works at the Olympics.
The Winter Olympics begin on Friday, February 6, with athletes staying together in the Milano-Cortina Olympic Village for the duration of the Games.
Competitors have long said the village is not just a place to rest between events.
Skeleton racer John Daly 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!?”
British ice skater Phebe Bekker recently showed on TikTok that athletes have been given standard mattresses this year, rather than the cardboard beds previously used at past Games.
Grindr changes access
Grindr has disabled its location feature inside the Olympic Village, meaning users can no longer see who is nearby or how far away other profiles are. The company said the decision was made to protect LGBTQ+ athletes from safety risks.
“When the Olympics come around, athletes face a level of global attention that doesn’t exist anywhere else — on the podium and off,” Grindr said in a statement.
“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.”
Safety concerns explained
Grindr said that features normally designed to connect users could be misused in the Olympic environment.
“Someone outside the Village could browse profiles inside it. Distance data could be used to pinpoint someone’s exact location,” the company said. It added that simply appearing on the app could expose a person’s identity, which “in more than 60 countries, remains a criminal offence.”
The company describes itself as “the world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people.”
Not the first time
This is not the first time Grindr has limited features at major sporting events. The app took similar steps during the 2022 Winter Olympics and again at the Paris Summer Games in 2024.
During the Milano-Cortina Games, Grindr will also send weekly reminders to athletes about potential risks. It is offering free access to safety tools, including disappearing messages, the ability to unsend messages and screenshot blocking.
The feature allowing videos to be viewed only once has also been disabled in the Village.
Sources: Grindr statement, Cosmopolitan, social media posts, Ladbible
