What Olympian Ryan Crouser Really Thinks About Those Cardboard Beds

Team USA shot putter Ryan Crouser is looking back on his experience in the Olympic Village during the 2024 Summer Games.

Despite headlines suggesting the beds were uncomfortable and the food was less than tasty, the gold medalist athlete —  who weighs 330 pounds and measures 6-foot-7 tall —  said everything in Paris was more than manageable.

“It actually worked out well,” Crouser, 31, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while partnering with Thorne’s NSF Certified for Sport Supplements. “Team USA had brought in beds. We had a sponsor donate beds. … It worked well. I was thankful for that. I didn’t have to sleep on the cardboard beds, but in my suite, there were athletes that had cardboard beds.”

Before leaving Paris — where he secured an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the shot put at 75 feet, 1 3/4 inches — Crouser had to test out the infamous cardboard beds for himself. From his perspective, they were “surprisingly durable.”

“I feel like they got a little bit of a bad rap,” he explained to Us. “We laid on it to see at the end when we were getting ready to leave and it didn’t break. Even for me, at 330 pounds. It would take a lot of effort to actually jump on it to break it.”

Sleeping arrangements aside, Crouser and other athletes were also treated to a unique eating situation in the Olympic Village. Competitors were given food by a catering staff, who served meals in a 3,500-seat dining hall and in to-go containers.

According to Crouser, the village was “buffet style” and at times “left a little bit to be desired.”

“We were lucky to go to the High Performance Center, which was where a lot of the Team USA athletes were based out of during the day,” he said. “We had lunch and dinner there. My diet, unfortunately, is pretty bland in terms of nothing too extravagant or fancy, especially around championship season.”

Crouser said he tries to eat over 5,000 calories a day and almost 350 grams of protein. As a result, most meals include chicken, rice, beef and pasta with some additional fruits and vegetables.

“Unfortunately, I feel like I kind of missed the boat a little bit on some of the athletes that really indulged,” he shared. “But at the end of the day, it’s a very performance-focused diet for me.”

Wherever training takes him, Crouser likes to travel with his favorite Thorne items including the RecoveryPro and Multi-Vitamin Elite. The products help keep the track and field athlete on top of his health game.

“It’s meant to fill any holes that you might have in your diet in terms of the micronutrients,” he explained. “You try and eat as well-balanced of a diet as you can as an athlete or even as just an average individual. But there’s most likely going to be holes in your diet, whether it’s the need for x number of servings of fruit and vegetables per day, and so you might miss that every once in a while. … I like to know my multivitamin is filling in those gaps if I didn’t get enough zinc or vitamin C or whatever it might be on that day in my diet.”