Although it’s not an official event, sex looms large at every Olympics (perhaps all the way back to the Greek days). The Olympic Village is notorious for sexual escapades among the athletes, and every time the event is held, officials distribute hundreds of thousands of condoms.
But maybe not this time around in Tokyo.
The world’s best athletes will sleep on cardboard beds, “allegedly designed to collapse under the weight of fornicators to discourage sex amid COVID-19,” the New York Post reported.
“Olympic officials — who already warned 2021 Games participants to avoid two-person push-ups because of the coronavirus — have set up 18,000 of the cardboard beds in the notoriously sex-crazed athletes’ village, according to Dezeen magazine,” the Post wrote.
The bed frames are constructed of cardboard and the mattresses are made from polyethylene fibers that are easy to recycle. “The sleeping equipment had to align with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’ sustainability plan, which aims to deliver a more sustainable event and showcase innovative concepts and solutions that will have a legacy after the Games,” the magazine wrote.
“The concept was to make a lightweight, easy-to-assemble mattress and meet the Games’ Sustainability Plan,” Airweave, the Japanese manufacturer of the beds, told Dezeen.
But one athlete said there’s another reason. “Beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes,” American distance runner Paul Chelimo tweeted. “Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports.”
Chelimo, though, said it might not affect his fellow runners. “I see no problem for distance runners, even 4 of us can do.”
Beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes
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😂 pic.twitter.com/J45wlxgtSo
— Paul Chelimo🇺🇸🥈🥉 (@Paulchelimo) July 17, 2021
Yet another athlete, Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, posted a video showing the beds are plenty sturdy, jumping up and down on one and declaring the reports they’re anti-sex as “fake news.”
“In today’s episode of fake news at the Olympic Games, the beds are meant to be anti-sex. They’re made out of cardboard, yes, but apparently, they’re meant to break at any sudden movements,” McClenaghan says. “It’s fake, fake news!”
The official Olympics Twitter account thanked McClenaghan for “debunking the myth,” noting “the sustainable cardboard beds are sturdy.”
Thanks for debunking the myth.😂You heard it first from @TeamIreland gymnast @McClenaghanRhys – the sustainable cardboard beds are sturdy! #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/lsXbQokGVE
— Olympics (@Olympics) July 19, 2021
Either way, Olympic officials are handing out some 160,000, far less than the 450,000 distributed for the last Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.
But Japanese officials said they’re not encouraging sex among the athletes.
“Our intent and goal is not for athletes to use the condoms at the Olympic Village, but to help with awareness by taking them back to their own countries,” the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee said in a statement to Japan Today.
Meanwhile, a third athlete at the Olympic Village in Tokyo has tested positive for COVID-19, The Associated Press reported. The games open on Friday, but no fans will be allowed in most events, including at the opening ceremony. Tokyo remains in a state of emergency as Japanese authorities said just 21.6% of the nation’s 126 million population is fully vaccinated.