Tokyo Olympics install ‘anti-sex beds’ for athletes to prevent COVID spread, as journalist in Japan says Games ‘feels like a ticking time bomb’ with ten Team GB members in isolation

Athletes at the Toyko 2020 Olympic Games will be sleeping in ‘anti-sex beds’ during the event, in a bid to clamp down on the spread of COVID-19.

The beds, which have been specially designed for the Games, are made mostly from cardboard and are meant to only support the weight of one person.

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If more than one person attempts to climb between the sheets together, the structure is designed to collapse… and then be recycled.

Although, American track and field athlete Paul Chelimo joked that wouldn’t be a problem for him and his fellow long-distance runners and also had some more fun with the sleeping arrangements by recalling a scene from Step Brothers.

Athletes will also not be given condoms unlike other games, to discourage rumpy pumpy in the Athlete’s Village in Tokyo, which has been dubbed by the Japanese government as the safest place in Japan, and instead have been told to take them home as souvenirs.

These are some of the drastic measures in place for this summer’s Olympics to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with the whole of Japan placed in a state of national emergency throughout the Games.

The fact that the delayed Tokyo 2020 is still going ahead has been met with a strong negative reaction in Japan, with the overwhelming majority of the public protesting against it over fears it could bring more coronavirus cases to the country.

Teams have already arrived in Tokyo ahead of the start of the event, with the opening ceremony scheduled for this Friday, July 23.

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But COVID issues have already begun, with six Team GB athletes as well as two staff members being told to self isolate after being on board a flight to Tokyo where another passenger tested positive for COVID-19. Two other staff members have also been pinged from working in the Athlete’s Village.

That news comes after two South African footballers tested positive, meaning the entire team has gone into self isolation. Their opening match of the Olympics against Mexico is next Wednesday.

For more on the uncertainty and strict restrictions in place in Japan, chief sports reporter for the Times, Matt Lawton, joined Monday’s talkSPORT Breakfast.

And he admitted there’s a feeling the Games is like a ‘ticking time bomb’ over the rising COVID cases.

He explained: “There are a lot of protocols and we’re pretty limited in what we can do. It’s not the experience we would have liked to have had in Tokyo. It’s a great city, I was here for the 2002 World Cup and it was brilliant, a fabulous place.

“But it’s the job, we’re here as journalists, not to socialise… and it’s starting to become a pretty major story.

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“I’ve been here a week and it feels like it’s escalating every day and it feels like it’s only going to get more and more as the Games goes on, it’s just going to build.

“The worry is one of the big names suddenly getting pinged or testing positive, that’s the real concern.

“As a journalist it feels like a ticking bomb, it’s like suddenly a story is going to drop of a major name, an Adam Peaty, a Dina Asher-Smith, Allyson Felix, that they’re out and not going to able to compete or win that Gold mendel or defend tier title, because of a COVID problem.

“The British athletes have been negative so far, but they’ve got to return two negative PCR tests over the next 48 hours before they can resume training, so at the moment they’re locked away in their rooms.

“If they test negative they can get back out, but this is a critical time for an athlete. It’s 33 degrees today and they’ve got to get used to the heat and this is disruptive to say the least.

“It’s intense. I went down to the British training camp in Yokohama a couple of days ago, it is intense in how strict the protocols are.

“They have segregated walkways and if you veer off the path suddenly there is somebody there saying, ‘STOP’, it’s really, really strict.

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“But there is a lot of criticism here, the public opinion is very much against it and there’s just this sense… they’re saying the athletes village is the safest place in Tokyo, but we’re now getting positives in there!

“There is an 8pm curfew, it is a state of national emergency until after the Games. When you look out on the streets at night, it’s a ghost town, and for a city of this size and population it’s pretty eerie.

“We’ve just got through a European Championship without any major incident, but the crucial difference between the Euros and the Olympics is that a national football squad in its own bubble is around 60, 70, 80 members, whereas Team GB alone is 1000 people, so the potential for an outbreak and the impact that could have is far more dangerous in terms of the threat it poses to a major sporting event.

“We very much hope they’re going to be able to control it and stop the spread of infection and they are working incredibly hard to do that.

“They’re just trying to protect not just the athletes but the Japanese population, they are so concerned in Japan this is just a super spreading event which is going to give the public a massive problem – which explains the negativity around it.”