Simone Biles Just Shared a Pic from the Olympic Village, and *Those* Beds Are Back

They’re back! As Olympians moved into the Olympic Village in Paris last week ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, they once again began sharing snaps of their now-iconic cardboard beds and videos of themselves putting them to the “test.” 

Despite how it sounds, the cardboard beds actually look pretty comfortable, as shown in a picture shared by Team USA gymnast and seven-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles. And no the beds are not sex deterrents, as some Olympians have claimed — at least, I don’t think they are.

Biles shared a photo of her lodgings in the Olympic Village, and the setup looks really cozy. She has a makeshift closet in one corner, a huge sunny window, and a bed bedecked with 2024 Olympics regalia. 

During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the cardboard beds went viral after some athletes tested out just how durable they were to see if the “anti-sex” rumors were true, and the beds held strong. British diver Tom Daly proved (again) this year in a TikTok video that despite their material, the beds can absolutely withstand some … action.

And Rhys McClenaghan, an Irish gymnast, also put his bed through a second round of testing and gave it a second stamp of approval.

The anti-sex rumor is a good one, but the real reason the beds are made out of cardboard is for environmental reasons. In a statement given to Reuters in May, Paris 2024 organizers said that “the choice of these beds for the Olympic & Paralympic Village is primarily linked to a wider ambition to ensure minimal environmental impact and a second life for all equipment used during the short period of the Games.”

The 2020 Tokyo Games “intimacy ban,” which was put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, played into the anti-sex theory. But intimacy isn’t off the table for Olympic athletes who live in the Village during the games. Their welcome bags actually contained Olympics-themed condoms.

Athletes can also customize their mattress so they can get the best sleep possible before their competitions. There’s a mattress education space located in the Olympic Village where Olympians can learn about how to choose the right mattress based on their sleep habits. Even though the anti-sex rumor has been debunked, the cardboard bed content will never not be funny. So please keep it coming, Olympians.