Things are hard — beds, especially

Everything is just right, except for the size of the beds.

Accommodating about 16,000 people is clearly a huge project, and there's no way to make everybody happy.

So it's no surprise athletes have some complaints about the Olympic Village.

China's Yi Jianlian and the rest of the Olympic basketball players were fortunate enough to be given larger beds than the rest of the athletes. [Photo by Cui Meng / China Daily]

The biggest seem to be that the rooms are smaller than those in previous Games, and the beds are too short for taller men.

"The only (negative) thing I can say is the bed is too small — not very comfortable," said Belgian road cyclist Tom Boonen, who stands 1.92 meters.

"It's actually OK, but it would be better if it could be a little bigger."

Some smaller athletes echoed Boonen's complaint.

Chinese men's boxer Liu Qiang, who is 1.75 meters tall and will fight in the 60kg class, also hoped for bigger beds.

"It's more like the bed in my high school dormitories," he said. "It's a little bit narrow and the cushion is hard. If they provided bigger ones, it would be perfect."

An Indian official was also upset about the apartments and stressed the accommodations at the 2010 Commonwealth Games were better.

"If New Delhi (host city of the Commonwealth Games) was five-star, the Games Village here is not even two-star. There is hardly space to move. The rooms are cramped," archery association official Paresh Nath Mukherjee told AOL.

Given the sharp differences in athletes' sizes for various events, the organizers provided special treatment for some of the biggest, such as the basketball players.

Brazil's NBA swingman Leandro Barbosa told China Daily on Thursday that their beds are different.

"I don't think (the beds are small)," he said. "The bed, compared with what size we are, they extended it for us. For smaller guys, they just have the normal bed."

Contact the writer at sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn