Athlete Shares Frustration Over Cardboard Beds At 2024 Paris Olympics Village: 'Beds Are S***'

Social media was ablaze with rumours during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics that participants were being made to sleep on absurdly thin cardboard beds, ostensibly to discourage casual sex. It was alleged that the cardboard mattresses, which were meant to support the weight of a single person alone, would collapse at the first hint of stress. The beds, however, were meant as a recycling programme for the Tokyo Olympics. But it appears that the notion is still widespread as athletes are posting videos of ‘anti-sex’ beds. Meanwhile, an Olympian has posted a video of the bed saying, “Beds are s***.”

The description for the video posted on an Instagram handle read, “More news on BedGate 2024.” An overlaying text read, “Update on the Olympic cardboard beds. The first word that came out of her mouth this morning.”

The athlete is shown in the video half asleep on her bed. As the video goes on, she can be heard grumbling about the beds. The video also included a brief clip from a video that Tilly Kearns, an Australian water polo star, released. There, she discloses that the Olympians representing her nation in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have been given mattress toppers to help them sleep on firm mattresses.

The video also shows an athlete in Tahiti, French Polynesia, demonstrating the state of the beds. According to that person, they have “real aluminium bed frames” instead of cardboard beds. Surfers competing in the Olympics are notably in Tahiti since the French overseas territories have some fantastic waves.

The video has generated more than 3 million views on the social media platform.

A user commented saying, “Can you imagine the kind of performance we would get from athletes if they actually got a proper night’s sleep now?”

Another user said, “How are these athletes supposed to perform when they sleep on shoe boxes?”

An individual went on to say, “I don’t think the issue is the cardboard frames, it’s the mattresses themselves, they’re too hard.”

“Whoever thought this was a good idea, needs to get fired,” read another comment.