Getting a medal at the Olympics is one of the biggest achievements for many athletes, showing that their persistence, resilience, and dedication paid off. After the podium and ceremony, the medals are a symbol of an athlete’s achievements and a cherished memento. Yet, these mementos of the Paris 2024 Olympics have been put into question after many athletes took to social media to post the rough condition of their newly won medals.
Medals for the Olympics haven’t been pure ratios for quite some time. Since World War One, the medal-making process changed, having the gold medal being made primarily of silver with a gold outer coating; nowadays, the ratio is 92.5% silver and a minimum of 6 grams of gold. For silver medals are made of pure silver, the bronze medals are usually made of 95% copper and 5% zinc.
How the metal for the medals is sourced varies from country to country. For the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the metals were extracted from recycled electronics. In preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics, the metal was sourced for scrap metal removed during the Eiffel Tower’s refurbishment, the thought being that each medal contained a little bit of Paris and its iconic tower.
Yet as the competitions finished and the ceremonies were all done, people looked at these medals and saw that they weren’t what they were cracked up to be.
Ranking third, Team USA skateboarder Nyjah Huston brought his bronze medal back to the States only to see that his medal looked, in his words, rough, like “it had been to war and back.”
Huston said that it came in contact with a little sweat, and the skateboarder passed it around to show to friends after winning it, but he didn’t expect it to deteriorate this quickly. A twelve-time gold companion in the X games, a 6-time gold champion in the World championships, alongside four silver and six bronze in other competitions, Huston is no newbie to the podium and its medal prize. Going to social media, he posted the condition of the bronze medal, which looked extremely tarnished. On one side of the medal, the bronze was chipped off, the outer coating separating from the inner base.
While many people online pointed out that bronze naturally tarnishes, US Olympic track and runner athlete Kellie Wells-Brinkley posted that her bronze medal from London’s 2012 Olympics hasn’t tarnished like Huston’s. She hasn’t been extremely careful either, saying she’s worn it on several occasions and has had people touch and hold the medal.
Danish badminton player Viktor Axelsen took to social media to compare the condition of his two gold medals. While his recent winning Paris medal isn’t in a dismal state as Huston’s, it definitely has a cheaper gold appearance and dull shine when placed next to the Japan-made gold medal.
Monnaie de Paris, the government institution that produces France’s coin, is one of the oldest minting institutions and took on the production of LVMH Chaumet’s Olympic medal design. After the skateboarder’s bronze medal photos made it to the internet, the medal was another straw, many said, in the countless fiascos that occurred during the Olympic competitions. In response to the issue, the Paris Olympic Committee said that they will work to appraise the medal and see what caused the damage, additionally saying that they will replace defective medals as they are reported.