Whenever the Olympics roll around every four years, it’s an exciting time for everyone. But the summer Olympics seem to have a greater popularity than the winter games and with good reason. Amazing athletes from around the world have gathered at Rio and are showing off their ridiculously toned bods, to no complaints from anyone. While we admire these Gods from our couches while eating ice cream, we wonder if an ordinary person could get a date with an Olympic athlete. Well, one journalist decided to go full out and test this out himself by using dating apps.
Nico Hines, a reporter for The Daily Beast, wrote an investigative piece about the dating scene at the Olympics that focused on gay athletes. Hines wanted to know if an average spectator could get a date with an Olympian athlete and enjoy a Rio night together. The reporter used Bumble and Tinder, but found the most success on Grindr.
Despite Hines going after the answer to the question that has been burning in our minds, his article seems to lose focus on the actual dating scene. Instead, it details his struggle with the idea of gay athletes, the fact that they want to have sex and his belief that people should care about this happening.
Hines insists in his article that he didn’t catfish anyone. But his own words betray him. “For the record,” Hines writes. “I didn’t lie to anyone or pretend to be someone I wasn’t — unless you count being on Grindr in the first place.” The reporter follows this defense with the fact that he’s a straight man with a wife and child. Hines doesn’t make it clear at what point in the conversation he told the Olympic athletes that he was a journalist writing a piece on this particular experience. He might not have done so.
He continues his piece by giving readers details about the different kinds of Olympians from various events that he encountered on Grindr. There was “a tall black guy with a perfect six-pack directly to a second perfect six-pack, this time belonging to a shorter white athlete.” Hines didn’t consider giving athletes privacy in his original piece where people could have possibly figured out who was being spoken about with the abundant details given. The Daily Beast later edited these details out.
In his investigative mission, Hines ran into situations he didn’t experience before. But he may be the only one who feels surprised about them. Perhaps, Hines hasn’t used dating apps for his own personal use before because he was pretty shocked about normal occurrences, like an athlete requesting a nude photo and wanting to meet up before 5:30pm. Boy, people are constantly requesting nudes (and even sending unsolicited ones) on all social media platforms.
Sex has been celebrated more and more in the recent years. It’s normal in our culture to have casual hook-ups for the purpose of simple pleasure. And in case Hines didn’t know, sex has actually been proven to make athletes better at their sport. If anything, Olympic athletes that want to have sex should be encouraged because they are, after all, winning medals for countries around the world.
After the article garnered attention, John Avlon, The Daily Beast’s Editor-in-Chief, added a note regarding the edits made and a quick apology. “A number of readers complained to The Daily Beast after the publication of the original iteration of this story,” Avlon wrote. “We take such complaints seriously because a central part of The Daily Beast’s mission is to fight for full equality and equal treatment for LGBT people around the world. Publishing an article that in any way could be seen as homophobic is contrary to our mission.”
Hopefully, Hines hasn’t ruined our chances scoring a date with a smokin’ Olympian. Wanting to have sex is nothing to be ashamed about and everyone wants it, even amazing athletes. Using a dating app is only one method for this to happen and catfishing isn’t necessary.
[H/T: Cosmopolitan]