Cardboard beds and cruise ships lead 2024 Olympic Village highlights

The summer Olympics are back — and so are the Olympic Village athlete beds.

Last time around at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the athletes’ accommodations made headlines for their intriguing material: cardboard. Designed to be recycled into new products after the Games were finished, the beds did have to overcome allegations of being “anti-intimacy.”

Regardless of their purpose, the cardboard beds evidently proved a success, as they’re back and strong as ever this year.

Get a closer look at the Olympic Village beds with Tom Daley. 🤩

🎥: @tomdaley pic.twitter.com/mY9qJjdC6C

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 23, 2024

For Olympic surfers, however, things are a bit different. This Games’ edition of the event will be held in Tahiti — the farthest a medal competition has ever been held from a host city.

With the competitors over 9,000 miles away from Paris, a surfer-specific Olympic village was needed. The result? A floating village on board a cruise liner based out of the island.

The Olympic Village for surfing athletes is onboard the Aranui 5, A cruise-liner based in Tahiti 🌊 #ParisOlympics
(🎥:TT/camilla_kemp) pic.twitter.com/KT3E3fsKsh

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 23, 2024

Each room includes a balcony with an ocean view. Notably, they do not also contain cardboard beds.