Sex before competing: Does it boost athletes' performance?

(CNNMexico.com) -- The International Olympic Committee distributed 150,000 condoms to athletes competing in London 2012. But what about the myth that claims that sex before a competition reduces the players' performance? Some athletes have admitted that the Olympics are not only a stage for world records and medals, but in the Olympic Village, sexual relationships are common among competitors and volunteers. This is a different story compared to previous decades. "At the end of the '50s and beginning of the '60s, people thought that sex diminished the players' performance," said Antonio Miguel, head of medical services at the Club Universidad Nacional Pumas, one of the Mexican first division's top soccer clubs, and a former football player. "Coaches gave us nitrate salts (potassium nitrate, a substance used to prevent erections) because, according to them, this would inhibit the sexual desire," Miguel said. Miguel explains that this myth was a product of the lack of knowledge on these topics. However, this has changed.