Olympic athletes including British diver Tom Daley have been putting the cardboard beds in the athletes’ village in Paris to the test.
As a part of France’s efforts to make this year’s Olympics “more responsible, more sustainable”, it has athletes sleeping on cardboard beds.
Although these were used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, they have once again had athletes and fans wondering if the beds are fit for athletic champions.
Four-time Olympic medal winner Daley sought to reassure his TikTok followers there was nothing to worry about.
The 30-year-old athlete gave fans a sneak preview tour of the cardboard, mattress and mattress topper construction, before hopping up and down on the bed and saying: “As you can see, they’re pretty sturdy!”
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The first time they were used in Tokyo, rumours swirled the lightweight beds were designed to deter athletes from having sex – a claim that was quickly debunked.
In fact, the director of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic villages Laurent Michaud told Sky News in March they are even dishing out 300,000 condoms to make sure “that everybody will have what they are expecting and what they need”.
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Sky News sports correspondent Rob Harris then toured the village and said the cardboard is “nothing for them to be worried about… because they can support 250kg of weight”.
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Australian tennis players Daria Saville and Ellen Perez have put the beds to the test with a series of workout exercises.
A video on Instagram shows them launching squat jumps and practising the worm on them, and even trying the customary tennis racquet smash – all of which the bed survived.
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The structures are made from recycled cardboard by Japanese bedding company Airweave.
It’s one of a number of sustainability initiatives France is pushing in a bid to make the Olympics more sustainable and pioneer eco-friendly designs that will have a legacy after the games.
It is also aiming to reduce the amount single-use plastics and “promote sustainable sporting structures”.
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The committee allocated €52m for its Paris 2024 Environmental Excellence strategy, including €15m to “ensure the Games are fully carbon neutral” by offsetting any carbon emissions from the event.
However, critics have raised concerns about the games’ sponsor Coca Cola, the biggest plastic polluter in the world according to the Break Free From Plastic campaign group, and the number of flights taken by fans and audience members to attend the Games.
