PARIS (Reuters) - Paris 2024 organisers say the Olympic village beds will be robust and comfortable amid reports they were installing anti-sex beds for athletes.
An intimacy ban was in place at the Tokyo Games amid the COVID pandemic.
"We know the media has had a lot of fun with this story since Tokyo 2020," the body charged with organising the sports extravaganza in the "City of Love" said in a statement to Reuters.
"But for Paris 2024 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.
"It goes without saying that the quality of the furniture has been rigorously tested to ensure it is robust, comfortable and appropriate for all the athletes who will use it, and who span a very broad range of body types."
Paris 2024 added that some 210,000 male condoms (10,000 of which are latex free), 20,000 female condoms and about 10,000 dental dams would be distributed to the athletes.
Several media reports mentioned the small size of the cardboard beds, but Paris 2024 insisted on sustainability.
"Airweave, an Official Supporter of Paris 2024, will supply bed bases made in France from recycled cardboard that can be adapted to the morphology of gymnasts and judokas alike," it said.
"They will donate the mattresses for the athletes' beds to the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Paris Opera Ballet School, as well as to Emmaus."
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
