With just days to go until the official kick-off of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Tom Daley took to Instagram to test out the Olympic Village’s ‘anti-sex’ beds. In a video posted to his Instagram, the openly gay Team GB diver, who has more than 3 million followers, gave fans a tour of his room, focusing primarily on the infamous bed. 

“For those wondering about the cardboard beds in the Village, I’m going to show you what they look like. This is cardboard. As you can see, it’s like a box,” said Daley. 

“Then you got the mattress, and these cardboard boxes here, like so, with the mattress on top and a mattress topper, and then we get our own little Paris ‘24 (bedspread)”. 

The diver, celebrating his fifth Olympic appearance this year, then proceeded to jump on the bed, landing on all fours in a suggestive pose before proclaiming: “As you can see, they are pretty sturdy”. 

 

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A post shared by Tom Daley (@tomdaley)

Daley isn’t the first athlete to test out the ‘anti-sex’ beds, however, with Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan having made a similar video this year and during the 2021 Games. McClenaghan similarly debunked the beds as being ‘anti-sex’ by testing out their durability. 

The ‘anti-sex’ beds were originally introduced during the Tokyo Summer Games, held in 2021 after being offset a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the official reason for implementing the new cardboard beds was to promote sustainability, some athletes have suggested otherwise, branding the box-like beds as ‘anti-sex’. 

At the Tokyo Games, American track and field Olympian Paul Chelimo claimed that the newly introduced beds were “aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes.”

“Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sport,” Chelimo added. 

@rhysmcc1Paris Olympics “Anti-sex beds” debunked (again)♬ original sound – Rhys Mcclenaghan

Sex amongst Olympic athletes is a long-running tradition, with some reporting that kinky orgies are a regular facet of the Games. Hope Solo, the goalkeeper for the USA’s Women’s soccer team, once estimated that 70 to 75% of Olympians were ‘hooking up’ during the Games. 

Considering that more than 10,000 athletes will be sharing just 3,000 apartments at the Paris Olympic Village, spending weeks on end in close quarters is bound to result in some sexual tension among competitors and teammates. 

While athletes like Tom Daley have debunked the supposed ‘anti-sex’ nature of the sustainable beds, the Olympic Games have long been sex-positive, providing athletes with an abundance of condoms to promote safe sex.

Condoms were originally provided to Olympic athletes starting in 1988 as a way to promote awareness of HIV at the height of the AIDS pandemic. This year, Olympic organisers have provided an astonishing 300,000 condoms to the 10,000 athletes participating.