Paul Chelimo responds to cardboard beds in the Olympic Village

In years past, the Olympic Village has been known for offering, ahem, extracurricular activities for athletes. In fact, this has become such an acceptable feature of the Games that organizers in previous years have provided hundreds of thousands of free condoms in the Village. In light of COVID-19, this year is much different, and organizers are discouraging any close contact between athletes. Their solution? Cardboard beds. Olympic 5,000m silver-medallist Paul Chelimo decided to share his take on the living conditions, and it has past and present cross-country and track runners laughing right along with him.

Beds to be installed in Tokyo Olympic Village will be made of cardboard, this is aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes

Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports.

I see no problem for distance runners,even 4 of us can do? pic.twitter.com/J45wlxgtSo

— Paul Chelimo????? (@Paulchelimo) July 17, 2021

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Anyone who remembers traveling to a cross-country meet and having to share a hotel bed with two or three of their teammates will know exactly what Chelimo is talking about, but he didn’t stop there. He continued, noting the risks involved in sleeping on a cardboard box:

Those who pee? on the bed are at risk here,once the carton box is wet the bed falls over esp it will suck if its a night before finals??

— Paul Chelimo????? (@Paulchelimo) July 17, 2021

He added that now he has two fears heading into the Olympic Games: fear of getting boxed-in during his race, and fear of getting boxed-in in the Village.

I can’t imagine getting Boxed in at the 5k finals and also getting Boxed at the Village?

Double trouble!

— Paul Chelimo????? (@Paulchelimo) July 17, 2021

Chelimo has now added another element to his training regime: he will now have to start practising sleeping on the floor in case his bed collapses the night before his race.

I’m pretty sure I will be sleeping on the floor,I will sell my bed to @KDTrey5 or one of the Basketball players in case theirs collapse, anyways sleeping on the floor is not new to me??

— Paul Chelimo????? (@Paulchelimo) July 17, 2021

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Now the real question is, how many bed-related injuries will be sustained during this year’s Games? We will have to wait to find out.