Rower Emily Delleman Tried Using Tinder Inside the Olympic Village — And It Did Not Go Well
Olympian Emily Delleman found out the hard way that dating inside the Olympic Village isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The 26-year-old Team USA rower took to TikTok recently to gush about her time in Paris, saying, “So far most things have been exceeding my expectations. Everything but this one thing.”
While recovering after practice one day in her “cardboard bed” (more on those here), Delleman stumbled upon a recommendation to “change your Geo location to the Olympic Village.”
“Oh my gosh, genius,” she recalled. “I mean, I’m here. You can take full advantage of this.”
Delleman then downloaded the dating app Tinder, which she hadn’t used “in years.” Before she could even start swiping left or right, the app promised all sorts of potential at her feet.
“They’re already hyping it up,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Match with pro athletes using our new feature!’ I was like, ‘Crazy, OK. This must be good.’ The nostalgia was starting to hit. I was getting excited. The expectations were rising.”
When she created her profile, Delleman — who competed in the women’s quadruple sculls, though she and her teammates came up short of earning a medal — said she made sure to “hype up that I’m an Olympian” and posted some pictures of herself in Team USA gear.
But when she finally began her quest in earnest, the results were immediately underwhelming.
“I start scrolling and scrolling and I don’t see any Olympians,” she explained. “I was like, ‘OK, my settings must be weird.’”
2024 Olympic Athletes and Their Famous Partners: Simone Biles, Tom Daley and More
However, despite narrowing her search to a “one mile radius,” Delleman continued to come up mostly empty.
“So far I think I’ve seen a total of two other Olympians,” she said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you Parisian men are beautiful. Chef’s kiss. I don’t know what they put in the water. But you know, I went in with the expectations of finding some of my future plot lines.”
After Delleman’s search for love came up dry, viewers in the comments section of her video offered their suggestions.
“Just be patient. Better to find folks in person than online anyway,” one person wrote. Another gave a more proactive idea, writing, “The way I would camp near the rugby team’s dorm.”
