Paris Olympics Athlete Village diaries: Anti-sex beds or sustainability at heart?

The Athletes Village at the Olympics is often a site for hook-ups and parties. These were a strict no-no at the Tokyo Games, where the athletes were advised to maintain social distancing due to the pandemic-forced restrictions.

In the city of love, the organisers said they will make available 300,000 condoms to the residents of the Village. Then came a googly: the beds, it was reported, would be small in size and made from materials that would deter athletes from having sex during competition.

Unconventional frames

The mattresses are twin-sized, meaning there isn’t enough space for the competitors to cuddle up together. These were the same beds, produced by the Japanese company Airweave, which were introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The unconventional bed frames at the Tokyo Games gave rise to several speculations in 2021. Paul Chelimo, an American distance runner, had at the time speculated on X that these mattresses were put in place to prevent athletes from having sex while competing in the Tokyo Olympics.

Over the years, athletes have openly spoken about people having sex at the Olympic Village. At the 2000 Sydney Games, 70,000 condoms weren’t enough, prompting a second order of 20,000 and a new standing order of 100,000 condoms per Olympics.

“There’s a lot of sex going on,” US women’s football goalkeeper Hope Solo, a gold medalist in 2008, told ESPN.

Sustainability, the reason

Organisers, however, have cited sustainability as the primary reason Olympic officials opted for the beds this year. The mattresses and cardboard frames are 100% recyclable with the bed bases made from recycled cardboard.

“We know the media has had a lot of fun with this story since Tokyo 2020, but for Paris 2024 the choice of these beds for the Olympic and Paralympic Village is primarily linked to a wider ambition to ensure minimal environmental impact and a second life for all equipment,” a spokesman for the Paris Games told an agency.

The bed bases are made from recycled cardboard, but during a demonstration, Airweave founder Motokuni Takaoka jumped on one of them and stressed that they “can support several people on top”.

The Paris Games spokesman underlined that “the quality of the furniture has been rigorously tested to ensure it is robust, comfortable and appropriate for all the athletes who will use it, and who span a very broad range of body types – from gymnasts to judokas”.

’Stronger than steel’

Moreover, Airweave, when it introduced the beds in 2021, had said in a statement, “Cardboard beds are actually stronger than those made of wood or steel.”

Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan had also referred to the ‘anti-sex’ claims as “fake news.” He demonstrated the durability of his bed by jumping on it in a video that he shared on Twitter.

“The beds are meant to be ‘anti-sex’… They’re made out of cardboard, yes, and apparently they’re meant to break at any sudden movement… It’s fake! Fake news,” McClenaghan said.

The official Olympics Twitter account reposted McClenaghan’s video, adding: “Thanks for debunking the myth.”

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