Toronto Public Health gave out nearly 488,000 free condoms during the World Cup
Team Canada weren’t the only ones scoring
Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which drew hundreds of thousands of tourists to Toronto alongside many local soccer fans, Toronto Public Health announced six soccer-inspired condom designs to “celebrate the energy of the games while promoting sexual health.”
We asked Toronto Public Health how many free condoms the agency gave out in the end.
Related: Olympic athletes in Milan went through 10,000 condoms in three days
“As of July 19, nearly 488,000 condoms had been distributed in the community, and staff participated in almost 23,000 face-to-face interactions with residents and sports fans from around the world who were visiting Toronto,” a spokesperson told us.
“Many of these interactions led to meaningful discussions about sexual health, including how to use safer sex supplies, consent, how to access Toronto Public Health Sexual Health Clinics and how to connect with Sexual Health Infoline Ontario (SHILO) for free, anonymous and inclusive counselling—seven days a week.”
Whew, that’s a lot of condoms. Torontonians must really love soccer.
Related: People walked, biked and took transit a lot more than usual during the World Cup
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
