Have the Olympic Beds Always Been This Bad???

On Friday, the 2024 Olympic Games will begin, meaning hot-blooded, hard-bodied athletes from all corners of the world have already descended upon the city of love and light, Paris. What was waiting for them, however, was not open arms but a rather rigid embrace. No, I’m not talking about the Parisians! I’m referencing the absolutely abysmal accommodations of the Athlete Village.

In recent days, scores of Olympians have posted TikToks showing off their rooms—namely, that their beds are made of…cardboard. Again. As demonstrated by countless athletes like Australian tennis player Daria Saville, British diver Tom Daly, and Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, the “bed” is a structure of what appears to be a collection of cardboard boxes of varying shapes and sizes topped by a thin mattress and a basic comforter.

“This is cardboard,” Daly said in a TikTok on Monday. “Then you’ve got the mattress and then this cardboard with the mattress on top with a mattress topper. And then, we get our own Paris ‘24 [comforter].” The threadbare comforter, I’ll note, reads: “Rêvez vos exploits de demain,” which means “Dream about your achievements of tomorrow.” Cardboard bed and an inspirational comforter? What is this? A Midwestern college girl’s dorm room?

@sofireinosokayak

responding the most asked question 😉 #villaolimpica #paris2024 #juegosolimpicos #olympicgames #sofireinoso #tiktokdeportes #cartboardbeds #olympicvillage

♬ original sound – sofireinosokayak

McClenaghan then tested the bed’s durability…you know, in case of any extra, off-the-clock training. It’s long been Olympic lore that the athletes aren’t just sweating and grunting on our television screens. In fact, so infamous are the sexploits at the Games that the cardboard beds have been deemed “anti-sex beds,” given how their lack of comfort might stop one from doing anything but (trying to) sleep. But anyone who’s attended college can attest that no bed is anti-sex if you’re spry and believe in yourself.

Despite being made of cardboard, and even after McClenaghan jumped and performed hardstands and front flips, the bed’s frame didn’t budge.

“No, they pass the test,” he announced on TikTok, dismissing the notion that they’re anti-sex beds. “It’s fake, it’s fake news!” McClenaghan, if you’re reading this…call me. Anyway!

Would these beds pass the sleep test, though? It doesn’t sound like it! In one TikTok (notably captioned, “already had a massage to undo the damage”), Tilly Kearns, an Australian water poloist, said the bed was “actually rock solid.” In another, she explained the team’s manager already purchased memory foam mattress toppers for more comfort…

@tillykearnsAlready had a massage to undo the damage♬ nintendo wii (mii channel) song – julie on the internet

The “anti-sex” bed allegations are hardly new but they are a semi-recent phenomenon. They began circulating during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which is when the cardboard beds were first introduced as part of a sustainability initiative. “This will be the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history that all beds and bedding are made almost entirely from renewable materials,” a news release from Inside the Games wrote about the beds at the time, adding that they’d be “recycled into paper products after the Games, with the mattress components recycled into new plastic products.”

Sustainability is also being prioritized at this year’s Games, with the French government having vowed to make the 2024 Olympics the “most responsible and sustainable games in history” Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), further explained to BBC Sport how climate change is an “extremely serious threat, not only for sport, but for all our lives.” (The beds in Paris are from the same manufacturer as the beds in Tokyo.)

“This is why, with our Olympic agenda reforms, we undertook to tackle these issues by focusing on reducing our footprint,” Bach continued. Other amendments include tables made from shuttlecocks, plant-based menus, and greater accessibility to alternative travel.

Whether Tokyo was the first known time Olympians were forced to sleep on cardboard beds, or if this has been the case forever and we’re only aware today thanks to TikTok, is unclear. But in 2016, for example, Athlete Village beds were reportedly made of metal, and in 2012, the beds were clearly wood. Even in 1996, the Olympians were housed in a massive—and new—complex of dormitories in Atlanta. According to the Atlanta History Center, the building had central air, each suite was complete with a kitchen, and during the Games, every common area was outfitted with pop-up restaurants, activities and arcades, and entertainment. (Though the Tokyo villas, and now the Paris villas, seemingly have no shortage of food, activities, and entertainment.) All that said, I highly doubt they were sleeping on cardboard…

No matter the material, people be fuckin’. And why shouldn’t they? They’re young, in the best shape of their lives, and in Paris for god’s sake! However, I guess if any Olympians sustain a back injury off the clock, we can all surmise what might’ve happened. I hope trying to save the planet or whatever is worth it!