During this year's Paris 2024 Olympics, singles are pole vaulting into the Olympic Village — on dating apps, anyway.
This isn't exactly a new strategy to find an athletic and attractive partner. Mashable's Rachel Thompson wrote about Tinder users doing this for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and you'll find other years-old videos about this on TikTok too. But, here we go again: It's another Olympic year, and another chance to score literal or figurative gold.
Influencer Sofia Elizabeth shared a TikTok video about changing her dating app location to the Olympic Village — it's located north of Paris across Saint-Denis, Saint Ouen, and L'Île-Saint-Denis. She later clarified that she did so on Hinge because changing your location on that app is free (unlike on Tinder and Bumble).
"Whoever said to change your location to the 'Olympic Village' currently in Paris to match with an Olympian, I just wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart," she said in a video with over 16 million views as of publication. She didn't respond to Mashable's request for comment, and Hinge declined to comment.
While this is a tactic for singles watching the Olympics at home, some Olympians themselves are indeed on dating apps during the games. Emily Delleman, rower for Team USA, posted a TikTok about her experience Tinder swiping at the Olympic Village.
Delleman, who didn't respond to Mashable's request for comment, said in her video she had downloaded Tinder for the first time in years. She added that Tinder was "hyping up" matching with athletes on the App Store — which is indeed the case:
Delleman made it clear on her profile that she was an Olympian — but unlike Elizabeth, didn't have luck matching with fellow athletes.
"So far I think I've seen a total of two other Olympians," Delleman said. Given that Tinder was a bust, she said she searched for "other forms of entertainment" — like TikTok.
Tinder told Mashable that in July, there's been an almost 20 percent increase in swipes in France, and a 103 percent increase in Passport Mode (a paid feature to change your location) to sites like Paris. The U.S., Brazil, and Turkey are the top origin countries where daters are using Passport Mode to change their location to France.
In Paris, Tinder says there's been a 52 percent jump in the number of users with "Olympian" as their job description, and a 43 percent in "athlete."
The Olympic Village will accommodate 14,250 athletes during the Olympic Games, and 8,000 during the Paralympic Games.
And if all goes well, Elizabeth said, you can fly to Paris to meet your match "and see their cardboard beds in-person."
