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How Sturdy Are the Olympic Village Cardboard Beds? Athletes Test Them In Viral Videos
Can the eco-friendly beds hold the weight of more than one person? Athletes from around the world are testing their sleeping arrangements in the name of social media science.
Will it be a good night’s sleep for the Olympic athletes in Paris this summer? The infamous cardboard beds that Olympians first slept on at the 2021 Games in Tokyo are being used again in France. As athletes from around the world are arriving at the Olympic Village, they’re also knocking on, and showing off, their sleeping arrangements on social media.
American fan favorite gymnast Simone Biles posted to her Instagram stories a picture of her bed, along with a snapshot of her teammate Jade Carey getting cozy on the foam sleeping mat. Team USA gymnast Suni Lee also showed off the unusual bed on her TikTok, adding, “We made it! Ok guys, I’m giving you a room tour. This is my cardboard bed and my one pillow.”
More importantly, the athletes are also answering everyone’s burning questions about the stiff beds.
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“For those wondering about the cardboard beds in the village, I’m going to show you what they look like,” British diver Tom Daley said in a video posted to his Instagram, as he knocked on his bed. “This is cardboard, as you can see. It’s like a box. You’ve got the mattress, and then these cardboard boxes here, like so, with the mattress on top. Mattress topper. And then we get our own little ‘Paris 2024’ [bed comforter].”
As Daley jumps on the bed, he notes, “As you can see, they’re pretty sturdy.”
The "Anti-Sex Beds'" Debut in Tokyo
The cardboard beds used by Olympic athletes were first used at the Tokyo Games in 2021. The idea behind the beds is sustainability, as they can be recycled when the Games are over.
But the beds didn't necessarily gain attention for their eco-friendly nature. Rather, they went viral when Olympians began calling them “anti-sex beds." This was largely because the athletes were advised by the IOC to avoid intimate relations during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, which coincided with the introduction of the beds. But that caused many athletes to question if the beds could even hold more than one person’s weight, as they were made of cardboard.
However, the rumors about the beds being unable to sustain such acts were debunked by multiple sources, including Forbes.
“The cardboard beds are very real, but are not designed to collapse at the weight of intimacy,” Forbes reported. “The cardboard beds were featured in USA Today in September 2019 and in AP News in January 2020, with no mention of their supposed anti-sexual properties. In fact, the beds can support 440 pounds, and are reportedly sturdier than wood.”
Athletes Conduct Their Own Experiments
Despite the anti-sex bed rumor being false, that hasn’t stopped athletes from once again testing out the sturdiness of the cardboard beds — this time in Paris.
Australian tennis player Daria Saville, who posted videos to social media trying out the bed in 2021, did the same again in Paris.
On her TikTok, she posted herself trying out a series of exercises on the bed, including running with resistance bands, doing the worm dance move, squat jumping, doing step ups, smashing her tennis raquet, doing a little volley practice, and even diving into a cannonball.
She announced, “I’m alive!” after her cannonball move, as her bed, indeed, was still standing.
Ireland rugby player Harry McNulty also tried out how much weight his bed could hold on his TikTok.
“Supposedly, the structure of this bed will collapse if there’s more than one person on it,” he said in the video, before jumping on it, as a fellow athlete also jumps on it.
Proving the bed can hold the weight of two people, he adds, “Think it’s all good!” and gives a thumbs up.
