Athletes test out ‘anti-sex’ cardboard beds for the 2024 Paris Olympics

Are the cardboard beds in the Olympic Village really to prevent athletes from canoodling, or is it all one big conspiracy theory?

Despite this year’s summer Olympics being held in the City of Love, there isn’t anything romantic about the cardboard beds international athletes are sleeping on.

The beds, twin-sized and made from several folded pieces of cardboard topped with a mattress, first debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In Japan, and now also in France, the cardboard bed frames are used as part of a sustainability initiative to decrease the environmental footprint of the Games.

During the Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some athletes and spectators called the cardboard furniture “anti-sex beds,” and suggested that their true purpose was to prevent canoodling in the Olympic Village.

At the time, athletes including Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan posted videos testing the strength of the supposed anti-sex beds by jumping up and down on the mattress.

A spokesperson for the Olympic Games replied to McClenaghan’s video on X, then called Twitter, and thanked him for “debunking the myth.”

This month, the Olympics said on TikTok that their cardboard beds are made from “sustainable” materials and are “100 per cent made in France.” There are three versions of the bed athletes can choose from, with varying firmness and size.