Gay athletes competing in the Winter Olympics will be given enhanced privacy features on Grindr to ensure they remain anonymous to the wider public, the LGBTQ dating app has announced.
Thousands of Olympians have descended on Italy this week as the 25th edition of the Games gets ready to officially kick off across Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo on Friday.
There will be 116 medals up for grabs as countries across the globe look to dethrone Norway, who claimed an impressive 37 at the last event held in China in 2022.
But away from the ski slopes and ice rinks, gay athletes in the Olympic Village will be able to hook up without having their identity compromised.
Grindr has announced a swathe of new features that are typically reserved behind a paywall for the Olympians to use, including the ability hide their profile from those using the app outside the Village.
The ability to send disappearing messages which delete automatically after they are read will be granted, while screenshots of profile pictures and images sent on private chats have also been prohibited.
Grindr is boosting privacy features for gay athletes competing in this year’s Winter Olympics
Thousands of athletes have descended on Italy as the Games get ready to kick off this week
‘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 its announcement.
‘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.
‘Grindr shows users who’s nearby and how far away they are. In most contexts, that’s useful. In the Olympic Village where thousands of athletes are packed into a small area, those same features may become a liability.
‘Someone outside the Village could browse profiles inside it. Distance data could be used to pinpoint someone’s exact location. And simply appearing on Grindr tells the world something about a person’s identity that, in more than 60 countries, remains a criminal offence.’
It is the third Olympics in a row the dating app has restricted location features, having done so in Beijing and the summer games held in France, in 2024.
Those in Paris almost two years ago reported that they had been ‘blocked’ from seeing who was on the app inside the Olympic Village when using the ‘explore’ feature, which typically allows you to find people using the platform nearby.
Some suggested the move was brought forward to stop previous instances where athletes had been outed, such as in Rio 2016 when US news outlet The Daily Beast apologised for publishing an article that may have revealed a number of gay athletes at the Games.
In a piece titled ‘I got three Grindr dates in one hour in the Olympic Village’, Nico Hines – a straight, male reporter – acknowledged many of the athletes he wrote about lived in ‘notoriously homophobic’ countries.
Athletes in the Olympic Village will be able to have their identity hidden from the wider public
Users reported being ‘blocked’ from accessing the Olympic Village during the 2024 Games
While he did not release their names, he shared what they wrote on their profiles and revealed identifying characteristics such as their height, weight and nationality. The news website first revised the article before taking it down and issuing an apology.
Readers were outraged that the article potentially compromised the safety of closeted athletes from countries with strict anti-gay laws.
The Daily Beast admitted it had ‘screwed up’, saying in a statement: ‘We were wrong. We’re sorry. And we apologise to those athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.
‘The article was not intended to do harm or degrade members of the LGBT community, but intent doesn’t matter, impact does.’
Grindr’s enhanced privacy features now mean anyone outside the Olympic Village will be unable to see users using the app inside it.
Gay athletes will also have their location automatically turned off but can choose to share it with other people if they wish, with Grindr saying athletes can ‘still connect’ but ‘won’t be broadcasting their location to do it’.
‘To the trailblazing athletes heading to Italy: we’re proud to support you and we can’t wait to see you shine,’ the app added.
The opening ceremony for this year’s Winter Olympics will begin at 6.30pm GMT at the San Siro on Friday and will feature performances from Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli.
There will be some preliminary events such as curling, ice hockey and snowboarding beginning on Wednesday, but the games officially open after the ceremony.
It will run until February 22, with the closing ceremony taking place at the Verona Arena.
