Paris 2024 Olympic medals to include piece of iron from Eiffel Tower
The medals at the Paris Olympics 2024 will each contain an original piece of the Eiffel Tower.
Games organisers said the ironwork, removed from the structure during earlier renovations, had been repurposed to create the medals’ hexagonal centerpiece.
The move, they added, would give successful athletes “veritable pieces of the history of Paris” to take home with them.
Like all designs since the 2004 Games in Athens, the reverse of the Olympics medal features an image of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.
The Paralympics medal, meanwhile, is decorated with a graphical representation of the Eiffel Tower, as if viewed from below.
The landmark had “certain metallic elements” removed during renovation work in the 20th century, which “have been carefully preserved ever since.”
The Eiffel Tower’s distinctive dark brown paint was cleaned off, and the pieces cut into hexagons before being embossed with the Paris 2024 logo.
The iron pieces are held in position with a “claw” setting, a technique typically usually to secure gems to items of jewelry.
The design was overseen by French jeweller Chaumet, whose parent company LVMH signed a major sponsorship deal with Paris 2024 last summer.
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