‘Beijing really said, how can we one-up Tokyo?’ US athlete shows off plush REMOTE-CONTROLLED beds (with no cardboard!) at the Olympic Village in China ahead of 2022 Winter Games
- US luger Summer Britcher, 27, excitedly showed off the beds on TikTok, revealing an eight-button remote
- Athletes can change the position of the top and bottom of the bed or enter ‘Zero G’ mode
- The bed looks both softer and even a bit bigger than the infamous cardboard beds of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
- The cardboard beds were rumored to be an anti-sex measure, but athletes proved they were stronger than they looked
- Several athletes who competed last summer, including rugby player Ilona Maher, expressed envy over the Beijing beds
- A Chinese paper also reported that the beds had memory foam and sensors that measure heart rate and breathing
Less than a year after Olympic athletes in Tokyo slumbered on eco-friendly ‘anti-sex’ cardboard beds, competitors in Beijing are enjoying a much more high-tech night’s sleep on beds with their own remote controls.
US luger Summer Britcher, 27, excitedly showed off the beds on TikTok, revealing an eight-button remote that controls different elements of the sleeping experience.
‘Not only do we not have cardboard beds here, but it’s as if the Beijing organizing committee said, “How can we just absolutely just one up Tokyo?”‘ she quipped.
Athletes at the Winter Olympics in Beijing are sleeping on high-tech beds with memory foam mattresses that change position
US luger Summer Britcher, 27, excitedly showed off the beds on TikTok
The bed has a remote which can elevate the top and bottom and go into ‘Zero G’ mode
Britcher just arrived in Beijing and has already been posting on TikTok quite a bit — but one of her first videos was in response to a viewer who asked about the bed situation.
‘I am so excited you asked this question because I have something incredible to share,’ she said.
In an effort to possibly one-up the Tokyo organizers, she said, Beijing outfitted athletes’ rooms with Ergomotion Softide beds in what appears to be a Twin XL or full size.
She held up the remote to demonstrate. It had eight buttons, including two that make the top half incline and decline, and another two that change the position of the bottom half.
She clicks one of the buttons, making the head of the bed move upward.
In the background, her roommate can be heard asking what ‘Zero G mode’ is — and while they can’t explain it, Britcher tested it out and called it ‘phenomenal.’
It’s unclear which Ergomotion bed the athletes are sleeping on, though the remote has Ergomotion’s logo and the word Softide on it.
On Ergomotion;s website, there is a Quest 1.0 Adjustable Base in Twin XL for $649, and a Quest 2.0 Adjustable Base Twin XL for $1,149.
According to a November article on the Chinese news website for the Global Times, the beds may be even more high-tech than the incoming athletes notice at first.
An employee at the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village said that the adjustable smart beds come outfitted data collection sensors.
The sensors can reportedly ‘accurately capture the data of a person’s body signature,’ including heart rate and breathing rate, and create a health report.
‘When the athlete is lying on the bed, the mattress will automatically adjust according to the curves of their body to keep it in the most comfortable state,’ Wang Hongsen, a member of the management team for the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village, told Chinese news outlet The Paper.
Beds at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held last summer, were made entirely out of cardboard
Rumors spreading that they were built of the seemingly flimsy material to deter athletes from having sex during the pandemic
The outlet also reported that the beds have memory foam and measure 1.2 meters wide and 2 meters long.
Since Britcher shared her video yesterday, several athletes who competed in Tokyo have shared their envy.
‘Me watching this as a Tokyo athlete remembering how uncomfy the cardboard beds were,’ wrote gold medal-winning volleyball Paralympian Emma Schieck.
‘I’m crying,’ said team USA weightlifter Mattie Rogers.
Several commenters wanted to hear from Team US women’s rugby player Ilona Maher, who became a TikTok star in Tokyo last sumner.
She quickly chimed in with a reaction video.
‘Your bed has a whole remote to it? It has modes? How big is it? It looks pretty big,’ she said, looking sad.
‘Our beds in Tokyo were, like, only like that big,’ she says, motioning with her fingers. ‘And they were highly flammable. And very solid. They were very solid beds. My back hurt like a week after I started laying on them. But have fun. That looks awesome.’
She had previously described the ‘pretty firm’ mattress, admitting that she didn’t sleep ‘that well’ because it was ‘not the most comfortable.’
US women’s rugby player Ilona Maher seemed jealous of the beds in Beijing, saying: ‘Your bed has a whole remote to it? It has modes? How big is it? It looks pretty big’
She had showed off the cardboard bed last summer, telling viewers: ‘Yes, it is all cardboard, and it’s pretty sturdy as you all have seen in the videos. It holds up’
She had her rugby teammates made several videos doing various vigorous activities on the beds to test them
Last summer, athletes in Toyko slept in beds made of cardboard, with rumors spreading that they were built of the seemingly flimsy material to deter athletes from having sex during the pandemic.
However, the beds turned out to be much sturdier than expected, and were likely only made out of cardboard to be more environmentally friendly and to arrange for easier recycling.
Athletes have been quick to prove just how solid the cardboard beds were by testing out different activities on them.
Maher, for instance, shared three TikTok videos about the beds, including two in which she and her teammates tested them out with ‘various activities’ that might break them.
One by one, they climbed on the bed to do CPR, yoga, clap push-ups marching, wrestling moves, and various other exercises. One threw a faux tantrum, while another pretended to faint dramatically — all while the other teammates laughed behind the camera. And with each move, the bed didn’t break.
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