Video of Israeli athletes breaking cardboard village bed goes viral

A video of nine Israeli Olympians jumping on a so-called anti-sex bed in the athletes village until it broke has gone viral, Israeli local media reported.

According to reports, the now-deleted video in which the athletes tested the strength of the recyclable cardboard bed frame was uploaded by Ben Wanger, a U.S.-born baseball player on the Israeli Olympic team, to his TikTok and Twitter accounts on Monday.

In the video, nine athletes jump on a single bed until it breaks. The beds were designed to support weights of up to 200 kilograms, according to manufacturer Airweave.

The video has since been deleted but has drawn angry responses in Japan. According to local reports, it was removed at the request of the Israeli Olympic Committee.

“It’s not funny at all. As a Japanese, it makes me very sad,” said one internet comment.

“I don’t understand why anyone would destroy something belonging to someone else,” another said.

Many other athletes have taken to social media sites to share their opinions on the now infamous beds.

"נראה כמה ישראלים צריך כדי לשבור את אחת ממיטות הקרטון": סרטון טיקטוק שהעלה שחקן נבחרת הבייסבול של ישראל לטוקיו 2020, בן ווגנר, מראה את שחקני הנבחרת "בוחנים" את עמידות המיטות בכפר האולימפי, כשהם קופצים על אחת המיטות בחדר עד שהיא נשברת@lianwildau pic.twitter.com/ATfDU70lww

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 27, 2021

American distance runner Paul Chelimo wrote on Twitter on July 17 that the beds were “aimed at preventing intimacy among athletes.” Chelimo, among others, dubbed them anti-sex beds.

The following day, Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan debunked the rumor that the beds easily break by filming himself doing a test jump on the bed on Twitter.

“In today’s episode of fake news at the Olympic Games, the beds are meant to be anti-sex. They’re made of cardboard, yes. But they are apparently intended to break under sudden movements. It’s fake news,” McClenahan says in the video that has been viewed more than 3.8 million times.