One athlete said her “back is about to break” after sleeping in the Olympic Village’s eco-friendly bed. Some teams have even chosen to sleep in hotels.
The idea of cardboard beds It took away sleep from many athletes before Paris 2024. Now that the competitors are already installed in the Olympic Village, the ecological beds continue to cause a stir.
Some teams have tried to upgrade their beds, while others have even refused to sleep in the Villa. Will this ruin the good intentions of making these Games the most sustainable to date?
Why are cardboard beds used in the Olympic Village?
When cardboard beds made their Olympic debut at the Tokyo Gamesin the time of COVID-19, rumors circulated that they were designed to avoid intimacy between athletes.
In reality, the goal was not to create the calls “anti-sex” beds, but to reinforce the ecological credentials of the Games. The cardboard frames for this year’s extendable beds are made in France and, according to the organizers, will be completely recycled after the event.
In addition, they can be transported disassembled, so they take up little space and reduce emissions.
The beds are covered with modular mattresses that can be adapted to different levels of firmness and that They are also reusable and recyclable. After the event, the mattresses will be donated to the French Army and other organizations, including schools.
The eco-friendly decor doesn’t stop there: the athletes’ rooms also include tables made from recycled badminton shuttlecockschairs that used to be bottle caps and parachute canvas poufs.
It’s all part of Paris’ goal of organizing the “Greenest Games Ever”which has also seen how the city transformed existing buildings into sports facilities and tried to clean Sena river for swimming tests.
The green wave against ecological Olympic beds
Northern Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan posted a video in which he appeared doing cartwheels and handstands on the frame.
But they offer a restful sleep It’s debatable. “My back is about to break,” an athlete complains in a video from TikTok, which Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns posted with the caption: “I’ve already had a massage to undo the damage.” The beds are “hard as stones“even on the soft side of the mattress, he added.
Boxer Tina Rahimi, also Australian, published a video from her teammate in which she proclaimed that “the beds are shit” at first hour of the morning.
Filipino-American gymnast Aleah Finnegan was somewhat more optimistic, stating that the bed “isn’t that bad” in a video with the following caption: “It’s definitely not the best mattress ever, but it works.”
Evy Leibfarth, an American slalom canoeist, was more positive, saying that the beds They are “mostly cardboard, but… not very hard”adding that the frames “minimize environmental impact, which is great.”
Are ecological measures counterproductive?
Teams from around the world They move to fight for an Olympic gold medal, so comfort has taken precedence over the environment. After a bad night’s sleep, Kearns and his teammates took advantage of overnight delivery services to order extra mattress toppers and pillows.
Canadian springboard diver Caeli McKay too posted that his team’s coach had bought pillows and extra mattress toppers, as do Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjostrom and American gymnast Cecile Landi.
ADVERTISINGTo sleep more comfortably, the American team also has used a cooling solution that pumps cold air under the mattress.
It’s another sample of the failure of ecological initiatives of the Olympic Village. After initially designing rooms without air conditioning, organizers were forced to back down in the face of 35-degree temperatures.
Countries have now been allowed rent portable air conditioning unitswith more than 2,500 orders placed at the beginning of July.
Given the unattractive prospect of hot rooms and cardboard bedssome teams decided well in advance to remain outside the venue, including the US women’s basketball and tennis teams, and the Serbian star Novak Djokovic.
ADVERTISINGInstead, high-level basketball players have shelled out $15 million (13.8 million euros) to book an entire luxury hotel in the center of Paris.
