Man’s ‘genius’ bid to match with Olympic athletes on Tinder delights the internet

One man is certainly shooting his shot with the Olympic Games in Tokyo – and he isn’t even on his country’s basketball team.

In a video posted to his TikTok account on Wednesday, New York comedian Reed Kavner revealed how he had paid for Tinder Plus so he could “swipe in the Olympic village and date an Olympian”.

By paying a subscription fee, users of the dating app can access its Passport feature, which allows them to swipe on profiles in different part of the world – such as the fancy accommodation where the Olympic athletes are staying.

“I was on swim team until I was 12 so we’ll have that in common,” Kavner’s caption read.

The screen recording then continues to show accounts appearing to belong to several Olympic athletes on the app, such as Estonian biathlete Grete Gaim and Canadian swimmer Katerine Savard.

People have since taken to the comments section to praise Kavner for the “genius” idea and demanding “updates when you have a match”.

Even Tinder commented on the video, using its official TikTok account to write “you’re not in the Olympics but you’re winning the game”.

Kavner responded playfully: “Can you please kick out everyone else who passported to the Olympic Village? They’re messing up my plan.”

When one user asked if he had secured any matches yet, the creator admitted: “Not yet”.

But that didn’t stop him from releasing a follow-up video attempting to woo Savard, who commented on his previous upload with several raised hand emojis.

“In your bio, Katerine … you say that you like men who speak French, so to that, I say, bonjour.

“Je m’appelle Français. J’adore le [sic] piscine, aussi,” he said.

Kavner attempted to win over Canadian swimmer Katerine SavardGetty Images

If, like Girls Aloud, you can’t speak the language, then what he said was that his name is French, and he loves the swimming pool, also.

Naturally, the comedian was ridiculed for the quality of his French in the comments.

“’My name is French’ LMAO,” one commented.

Another was more brutal: “This hurted my ears and not even French speaker.”

“I’m a French speaker and it wasn’t all that bad… Except the ‘je m’appelle Français’ which means my name is Français,” said a third.

In an update posted to Twitter, Kavner revealed that Savard had responded to his video message, writing simply “hahahaha j’adore”:

Bonne chance, mon ami.