Tokyo Olympic athletes beware — particularly larger ones. The bed frames in the Athletes Village at this year’s Olympics will be made of cardboard. Sturdy cardboard.
“Those beds can stand up to 200kg,” explained Takashi Kitajima, the general manager of the Athletes Village, speaking through an interpreter. Surely no Olympic athlete weighs that much.
Stronger than wood
“They are stronger than wooden beds,” Kitajima added. He also took into account the possibility of a wild room celebration after, say, a gold-medal victory. “Of course, wood and cardboard would each break if you jumped on them,” he said.
The single-bed frames will be recycled into paper products after the Games. The mattress components — the mattresses are not made of cardboard — will be recycled into plastic products.
The mattress is broken up into three distinct sections, and the firmness of each can be adjusted. The idea was to use materials that could be remade after the Olympics and Paralympics. But the cardboard frames and supports should give the rooms a spartan look.
Organisers showed off the beds and a few other furnishings on Thursday at their headquarters. The entire Athletes Village complex will be completed in June. The Olympics opens on July 24 followed by the Paralympics on August 25.
“The organising committee was thinking about recyclable items, and the bed was one of the ideas,” Kitajima explained, crediting local Olympic sponsor Airweave Inc. for the execution.
Organisers say this is the first time that beds and bedding in the Athletes Village have been made of renewable materials.
The Athletes Village, being built alongside Tokyo Bay, will need 18,000 beds in 21 apartment towers.
