The thousands of cardboard beds are back at the Olympic Games, after having already been widely discussed, positively or negatively, during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Their design is Franco-Japanese.
In the Olympic Village, there are two types of stars: athletes and cardboard beds. As the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris approaches, the thousands of athletes who have taken up residence in this 52-hectare space (spanning Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Île-Saint-Denis) were able to discover their rooms and the astonishing bed base on which they will spend their next nights. Their reactions on social networks, between amusement and surprise, were not long in coming. In the meantime, many Internet users are taking the opportunity to mock the organizers. However, this is not a first for an Olympic Games.
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“It’s okay, it’s comfortable”
The athletes who were surprised were those who did not participate in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, for which almost identical beds had been installed. At the time, there were already many more or less flattering comments. “I already knew the cardboard beds in the Olympic village in Tokyo and they’re fine, they’re comfortable,” said French swimmer Léon Marchand on the microphone of RMC Sport last March. “It’s quite funny, it’s a controversy, even though in Tokyo we’ve already slept on cardboard beds,” Marie Wattel aboundedEuropean champion in long course.
Numbering 26,000 for all the Olympic and Paralympic Games, these beds are designed by the Japanese company Airweave, whose “highly appreciated” results in Tokyo convinced the Paris 2024 organizing committee. This choice is part of a desire to reduce costs and ecological commitment. In principle, all these beds must be recycled into paper or plastic products.
Three-block mattresses
Compared to 2021, the furniture provided is announced as “more resistant”. Another difference: part of the production and recycling takes place in France. In fact, Airweave only supplies mattresses made of polyethylene fibers. The frame, made of recycled cardboard, is manufactured by the French company Smurfit Kappa, a European giant in paper packaging.
Everything arrived in a kit (36 elements) at the Olympic Village, but it only takes about twelve minutes to assemble. When the athletes arrive, they only have one thing to do: choose their mattress blocks using software that scans their morphology. Because these mattresses are in fact divided into three blocks of different firmness (an extension is also available for very large sizes). For example, Airweave recommends a mixed-firm-mixed combination for judokas. However, it seems that a little time to adapt is necessary. “I already had a massage to erase the damage,” quipped Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns.
The fable of the “anti-sex” bed
At first glance, these beds may raise concerns about their sturdiness. “They can hold multiple people on them,” promised Montokuni Takaoka, CEO of Airweave. To prove it, he jumped with both feet onto a bed presented to the press. Something that Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan also did upon his arrival in the Paris Olympic Village. Something he had already done in Tokyo, by the way.
In the caption of his video, Rhys McClenaghan writes that his video also serves to “dismantle” the belief that these beds are deliberately “anti-sex”. An idea that gained momentum in Tokyo, where health recommendations in the face of Covid-19 asked athletes to reduce their non-essential interactions as much as possible. However, in the Olympic village in the Paris region, it is planned that more than 200,000 condoms will be distributed.
