The winners at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games will be taking home a piece of Paris, not only in their hearts but also in their hands: Each of the 5,084 gold, silver, and bronze medals contains an 18-gram hexagonal chunk of iron from the Eiffel Tower.
Completed in 1889, the City of Lights’ iconic landmark has undergone numerous renovations, and certain metallic elements were removed and preserved in the process. Sections of the original iron, stripped of its brown paint, have found new life in the medals.
“The concept came after a few discussions. We realized that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower,” Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee, told the Associated Press earlier this year. “We said to ourselves, ‘Hey, what if we approached the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. to see if it’s possible to get a bit of the Eiffel Tower to integrate into the medal?’”
Per the Olympics’ official website, medals have been handed out to winning athletes since the first modern iteration of the event, held in Athens in 1896, but with a bit of twist. First place winners received a silver medal as well as an olive branch and a diploma, while second place winners received a bronze or copper medal along with a laurel branch and diploma.
The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis launched the tradition of awarding gold, silver, and bronze medals to the first, second, and third place winners, respectively. Interestingly, today’s gold medals are in fact still mostly silver. According to The New York Times, the International Olympic Committee requires first place medals to be at least 92.5% silver. They’re then plated with around 6 grams of pure gold.
This summer’s designs come by way of Parisian jewelry house Chaumet. In addition to representing the Eiffel Tower, the iron centerpieces are a nod to the nation itself — France has long been referred to as “L’Hexagone” due to the geometric form of its territory.
“We’ve decided to add this hexagon [which represents the shape of France] in the way we would a gemstone — in the center and placed as the most precious element of the medal,” Clémentine Massonnat, who is in charge of creative activities at Chaumet, said in a statement.
On one side of the Olympic medals is the iron, engraved with the phrase “Paris 2024” and the Olympic rings and flame. On the other is an image of Greek goddess of victory Nike standing in the Panathenaic Stadium, where the 1896 Olympics were held, with the Eiffel Tower and the Acropolis of Athens in the background.
This summer’s Paralympic medals vary slightly, with one side featuring the hexagonal iron with the phrase Paris 2024 and the Agitos symbol, and the other featuring an image of the Eiffel Tower from an upward-looking angle, with the words “Paris” and “2024” on either side of it in Braille.
“Having a gold medal is already something incredible. But we wanted to add this French touch and we thought that the Eiffel Tower would be this cherry on the top,” Roncin told the AP. “Having a piece of it is a piece of history.”
Check out every Olympic medal design, from 1896 to the present day.
Share to:
