Why athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be sleeping on cardboard beds

This article originally appeared on WIRED Italia. Translated from Italian.

Yes, the beds of the athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are indeed made of cardboard. The news of the paper beds, which sparked curiosity and skepticism after videos of the athletes circulated online, was confirmed by the organizers of the French Olympics, who revealed that Japanese company Airweave, which managed the athletes’ rest at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has been appointed “Official Bedding Supporter of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

These cardboard beds can be shipped unassembled in relatively small containers and can be recycled at the end of their life, but despite being made from paper, the beds themselves are designed to be surprisingly sturdy when properly assembled, and for good reason.

“People get very happy after winning a medal, so we designed the cardboard bed to be large enough for three or four people to jump on,” said Motokuni Takaoka, founder and president of airweave.

A no-sex bed?

The introduction of cardboard beds has reignited a controversy that arose during the Tokyo Olympics. In 2020, American cross-country skier Paul Chelimo expressed concern by posting a video of the cardboard beds, speculating that their fragility could be used as a way to limit intimacy between athletes. However, the no-sex beds theory was later proven false, and Olympic committees implemented distancing measures aimed at reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

But the ban on intimate conduct between athletes that fuelled those concerns at the time was lifted by the Olympic Committee in March last year. Laurent Michaud, director of the Athletes’ Village at the Paris 2024 Games, told Sky News at the time that the committee 300,000 condoms distributed To ensure that “everyone has what they expect and need.”

When it comes to withstanding jumps, celebrations and other demanding movements, as videos of athletes show, the bed is designed to withstand the stress of up to 250kg of weight and features a customizable modular mattress system with three blocks of different firmness that can be adjusted to suit different athletes’ physiques and needs.

Sustainable Sleep

The use of 16,000 cardboard beds with fully reusable and recyclable mattresses at the Paris Games is part of a series of initiatives, along with the Seine clean-up, aimed at making the Games the “greenest ever”.

Last week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo donned a wetsuit and goggles and immersed herself in the Seine, where swimming has been banned for a century and where raw sewage has been dumped into for 50. The PR stunt was to prove that the water is now clean enough to host several Olympic swimming events, and three public baths are scheduled to open after the games are over.