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On Thursday, February 8, the Paris 2024 organising committee revealed the designs of the medals set to be presented to the winners at the Olympics and Paralympics. The gold, silver, and bronze medals set to be given to the podium finishers will have a hexagonal, polished chunk of iron pieces, which are extracted from the iconic Eiffel Tower.
The iron pieces embedded in the Paris 2024 medals, in a hexagonal form representing France, weigh 18 grams, which were cut from grinders and swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping, remarked Joachim Roncin, the Head of Design of the Paris 2024 organising committee. The 135-year-old Eiffel Tower has been a witness to two Olympic Games in Paris, which were held in 1900 and 1924.
Joachim Roncin said, “The concept came after a few discussions. We realised that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower. 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?’”
The 5,084 medals for Paris 2024, including around 2,600 for the Olympics and 2,400 for the Paralympics, are designed by jeweller Chaumet, and produced by the French mint, the Monnaie de Paris. Each medal is 85 millimetres across and 9.2 millimetres thick, including the gold medals weighing 529 grams with six grams of gold, while the silver and bronze medals weigh 525 grams and 455 grams respectively.
The Olympics are going to be hosted in Paris from July 26 to August 11, and shortly after, the Paralympics will happen in the French capital from August 28 to September 8.
Here is the clip of Paris 2024 medals embedded with pieces of Eiffel Tower: