Photo courtesy of Paul Chelimo/ Twitter.
Rumors that athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics are sleeping on cardboard anti-sex beds meant to discourage sex are untrue, according to USA Today. The athletes will be sleeping on beds made from recyclable cardboard that will be reused for the Paralympics and later recycled. The Tokyo Olympics is the first time that beds and bedding from the Athletes Village will be
made of sustainable materials, per the Associated Press.The anti-sex bed rumors began after Paul Chelimo joked on Twitter that the light-weight cardboard beds were made to keep athletes from having intimacy. The truth is that the beds can hold up to 441 pounds, and the mattresses made of polyethylene are adjustable. The beds were made by the Japanese company Airweave, who manufactured 18,000 beds for the olympic games.
Rhys Mcclenaghan, an Irish gymnast competing at the Games, proved the bed was sturdy enough for sex by jumping up and down on the bed.
After the Paralympics, the mattresses will be recycled into plastic products, and the bed frames will be recycled into paper products.
To further denounce the rumors of anti-sex beds, organizers of the Tokyo Olympics are giving out 150,000 condoms to athletes as a parting gift. Takashi Kitajima is the organizer of the Athletes’ Village for the 2021 Olympics and said that the condoms were to promote safe sex.
“So the purpose of distributing condoms is not (just) to use in the village, but to ask athletes to cooperate for the awareness of the issue by bringing the condoms back home to their countries.”