Via TikTok (@ilonamaher, @laviainielsen, and @codymelphy)Life & CultureNewsThe best thing about the Olympics is the athletes on TikTokCardboard beds, self-driving cars, and daily COVID tests: competitors are giving us a behind-the-scenes look at Tokyo’s Olympic VillageShareLink copied ✔️July 29, 2021Life & CultureNewsTextMae Williams Most people will never step foot inside an Olympic Village, instead only seeing the quadrennial Games via sporting activities at the dedicated Park. That is, until this year – thanks to a little app called TikTok, Olympic athletes are giving us regular folk a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on when they’re not competing. Posting with the hashtags #OlympicTikTok, #Tokyo2020, and #TokyoOlympics, athletes from all over the world are sharing their experiences in Japan. As expected, those cardboard beds play a big role. Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns posted a helpful video giving some context behind the beds, including some benefits which may actually sell them to you. Not only are they made of “really hard cardboard, so it’s not going to break”, they’re also environmentally friendly, and you can also customise the mattress and extend the bed if you’re tall. What’s not to love! Ilona Maher, a Team USA rugby player and arguably the Olympics’ biggest TikTok star, revealed just how tough the beds are in her own video. In the clip, various members of the US Olympic team test the beds out by doing burpees, cheerleading moves, “The Michael Phelps”, and “wife dramatically crying after finding out her husband cheated on her with his secretary” – arguably the hardest thing for a bed to withstand. Beds aside, athletes are also taking TikTok on tours around the rest of the Village. Team USA rugby player Cody Melphy shared a video of “things that just make sense in the Olympic Village”, including its accommodation, the 24/7 dining hall, a free Coke machine, and its self-driving cars. Even British diving legend Tom Daley – who won his first ever gold this year – has got involved, taking TikTok on a tour of the Team GB apartments. And, in case you were wondering, yes the whole GB diving team can fit in one shower. Of course, it’s not all fun and games (pun intended). A video shared by British sprinter Laviai Nielsen shows what it’s like to compete in the Olympics during a global pandemic – namely, doing daily COVID-19 tests. Soundtracked by Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids”, Nielsen films her everyday nose swab. Glam! See some of the best videos below. Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MOREAre frontal lobe breakups real?‘He’s my Bernie Sanders’: Meet the New Yorkers for Zohran InstagramHow to become a foodfluencer, according to Instagram Rings creatorsRadge, the maverick magazine putting the north-east on the mapAre we caught in a culture of never-ending catch-ups?Inside the camp, chaotic world of T Boy Wrestling InstagramHow to find your next Instagram obsession, according to Rings creatorsWhat the new Renters’ Rights Bill means for youI let an AI avatar set me up on a date – here’s what happenedWhy is everyone so obsessed with ‘locking in’?New book Crawl explores the reality of transmasculine life in AmericaWhy does hand-holding now feel more intimate than sex?