Just as during the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, the gay dating app Grindr announced the blocking of its geolocation features in the Milan-Cortina Olympic Village to protect winter Olympic athletes from an outing that could put them in danger.
If 44 openly LGBT athletes participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics, others are not out. Aiming to guarantee their safety, given that 60 countries still criminalize homosexuality, Grindr announced on February 2, via its blog, the restriction of its features in the Olympic Village. “As the Olympic Games approach, athletes attract global attention like never before, on the podium and off. For gay athletes, particularly those who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or who come from countries where homosexuality is dangerous or illegal, this visibility creates real safety risks”, explains the gay dating app.
Specifically, athletes will still be able to use the app, but the “Roam” and “Explore” features, which allow users to browse profiles in precise geographic areas, are disabled inside the village boundaries. Thus, no one outside of it will be able to snoop to identify the profiles present or to send them messages. Likewise, the “Show distance” feature is also disabled by default there.
Grindr, Olympics and outing
During the entire Games period, Grindr has also decided to offer athletes access to features usually paid for: disappearing messages, automatically deleted after being read, as well as the “unsend” function which deletes messages on both sides of a conversation, and finally the ability to block screenshots.
Security options are also strengthened with the gratuity of the “Report a recent conversation” feature, which allows users to report a conversation up to 24 hours after it ends. Grindr further states that it will increase safety outreach to athletes, with weekly reminders about risks specific to the Olympic environment, links to its multilingual safety and privacy guides, and safety resources provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Finally, users present in the Olympic Village will be targeted, instead of advertisements, by Grindr for Equality messages, focused on health and safety.
Similar measures had already been taken during the Beijing Games in 2022, then the Paris Games in 2024, and are explained by Grindr being implicated in athletes’ outings. Thus, during the Rio Games in 2016, the American media The Daily Beast cleverly published an article titled “I had three Grindr dates in one hour at the Olympic Village” in which the reporter — heterosexual — recounted how he had used the app to go hunting for gay athletes, revealing details that could disclose their identities. During the Tokyo Games in 2021, TikTok users had geolocated athletes present in the Olympic Village and revealed screenshots. “To all pioneering athletes heading to Italy: we are proud to support you and we can’t wait to see you shine”, Grindr concludes, reaffirming its support for LGBT athletes.
