It has been written anonymously, apparently by a British former Olympian, who claims that life in the athletes' village amounts to one great debauched party, and that the 70000 condoms provided for athletes in Sydney 12 years ago ran out within a week.

Can this be so? Has bed-hopping become the most popular sport in the Olympic village, the London one of which, incidentally, opened for occupation yesterday?

It is certainly no secret that there will be alcohol on campus: the US team alone has two sponsored beer halls, a Budweiser House and a Heineken House. And where there is alcohol and young, fit, libidinous men and women, there is invariably sex.

In terms of Olympic recognition, and with apologies to poet Philip Larkin, sexual intercourse began in 1992, between the start of the Ben Johnson ban and Great Britain's eight-man winning crew. At any rate, it was in Barcelona that year that free condoms were supplied for the first time.

No fewer than 100000 condoms have been stockpiled for London, along with, according to one report, "an industrial quantity" of pregnancy test kits.

An Olympic gold medallist confirmed the prevalence in the village of two, if not all three, of the unholy trinity of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.

"There is always a nightclub area for the Olympians to unwind and let their hair down in."

The swimmers, he added, tended to be the "most excitable party animals".

But the sexual "hierarchy" was headed by the male sprinters: "They always seem to be the ones who attract the most ladies and have the most success, at least they did until the Dream Team [US basketball team] took over."