Why Paris 2024 Olympic Athletes Are Sleeping on Cardboard Beds

This communicative primitively appeared successful WIRED Italia. It has been translated from Italian.

Yes, the athletes' beds astatine the Paris 2024 Olympics are so made of cardboard. The paper-based berth news, which has aroused curiosity and immoderate skepticism aft some videos of athletes circulated online, was confirmed by the organizers of the French Olympic Games, who fto it beryllium known that Airweave, the Japanese institution that had managed the athletes' remainder successful the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has been dubbed the "official bedding supporter of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

These cardboard beds tin beryllium transported unassembled successful comparatively tiny containers, and then, erstwhile their function, is implicit they tin beryllium recycled. Yet contempt the insubstantial construction, the beds themselves, erstwhile enactment unneurotic properly, person been designed to beryllium amazingly sturdy—and for bully reason.

"We designed these cardboard beds truthful that they tin enactment up to 3 oregon 4 radical jumping, due to the fact that aft winning a medal, radical are precise happy," Motokuni Takaoka, laminitis and president of Airweave, said.

No-Sex Beds?

The instauration of cardboard beds had reignited a contention that arose during the Tokyo Olympics. In 2020, American cross-country skier Paul Chelimo expressed his interest by posting a video of the beds and speculating that their evident fragility could beryllium a mode to bounds intimacy among athletes. The no-sex furniture theory, however, was aboriginal debunked, with the distancing measures implemented by the Olympic committee aimed astatine reducing the hazard of Covid infection.

However, the prohibition connected intimacy betwixt athletes, which had fueled these concerns astatine the time, was lifted by the Olympic committee past March. Director of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic villages Laurent Michaud told Sky News astatine the clip that the committee would beryllium giving retired 300,000 condoms to guarantee "everybody volition person what they are expecting and what they need".

As to withstanding the rigors of jumping, celebratory oregon immoderate different kind, arsenic the athletes' videos show, the beds are designed to withstand the accent of up to 250 kg successful weight, arsenic good arsenic person a customizable modular mattress strategy with 3 blocks successful antithetic firmness levels that tin beryllium adapted to antithetic athletes' physiques and needs.

Sustainable Slumber

The usage of the 16,000 cardboard beds with mattresses that are afloat reusable and recyclable for the Paris games is portion of a bid of initiatives enactment successful spot aiming to marque these “the Greenest Ever Games”, with different being the cleanup of the Seine River.

Last week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo donned a bedewed suit and goggles, and wholly submerged herself successful the Seine, wherever swimming has been banned for the past century, and for 50 years earthy sewage was released into the river. The PR stunt was to beryllium that the h2o was present cleanable capable to signifier respective Olympic swimming events; and 3 nationalist bathing areas volition unfastened successful the Games’ aftermath.