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No SEX at Olympics? The real reason why athletes are being made to sleep on cardboard beds

This year, the participants are being dissuaded from sex owing to Covid-19 fears

Olympian athletes are taken aback by 'cardboard beds' being kept at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. As participants from different nations head to Japan's capital for the mega sporting event, they are quite surprised by the bizarre sleeping arrangements. Photos of the uniquely structured beds have surfaced online, sparking varied reactions among social media users. Most of them, however, agree on one thing — that the cardboard beds have been kept to prevent sex at the Olympics. 

Tokyo Olympics 2020, which will start from July 23, 2021, will see over 11,000 athletes from different countries participating in 339 sporting events. The event was postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The athletes are now being hosted at the Olympic Village in Tokyo, pertaining to all safety protocols against Covid. According to TMZ, world-class athletes will start arriving at the venue by the end of the following week. 

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The beds arranged at the Olympics Village have been designed by Airweave, a Japanese bedding company. Constructed out of recycled cardboard, and put together along with a customizable mattress, the sustainable beds are quite unique in appearance. The company has manufactured and supplied over 18,000 beds just for the Olympics. 

As soon as photos of the same surfaced online, the general consensus among people was that the beds were primarily designed to discourage sex among athletes — since they appeared too frail to bear the weight of two persons. Athletes having sex with each other is not unusual, but this year, the participants are being dissuaded from it owing to Covid-19 fears. 

The beds were tested on by Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, who posted a video showing him hopping up and down on his cardboard bed at the Olympic Village. He confirmed that the beds can withstand him jumping with full force, hence they would be intact during sex as well. 

US track and field athlete Paul Chelimo joked, "...Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports. I see no problem for distance runners,even 4 of us can do😂"

He further added, "Those who pee on the bed are at risk here,once the carton box is wet the bed falls over esp it will suck if its a night before finals.."

"At this point I will have to start practicing how to sleep on the floor; cause If my bed collapses and I have no training on sleeping on the floor i’m done More added stress heading into Tokyo!" Chelimo also wrote in his Twitter thread about the beds. 

Meanwhile, the Olympics Village officials have distributed 100,000 condoms to athletes but deterred them from using those. Rather they clarified that the condoms were distributed as part of safe sex education and should be taken back to an athlete's home country after the games.