Paris Olympics medals made with pieces of the Eiffel Tower
AN OLYMPIC medal inlaid with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. How’s that for a monumental prize? hexagonal, polished chunk of iron taken from the iconic landmark is being embedded in each gold, silver and bronze medal that will be hung around athletes’ necks at the July 26-August 11 Paris Games and Paralympics that follow.
Games organisers revealled their revolutionary design yesterday.
Here’s a deep dive into the medals that are sure to wow:
ARE THESE REALLY EIFFEL TOWER CHUNKS?
Absolutely. The 330-metre tall tower is made of 18,038 iron parts. But it’s also getting a bit long in the tooth. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair – which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution – engineer Gustave Eiffel’s tower was only intended to stand for 20 years.
Instead, it just goes on and on – thanks to a bit of rejuvenating surgery from time to time and constant care. The 135-year-old tower is a veteran of two previous Games – in 1900 and 1924, the last held in Paris.
The iron pieces embedded in the centre of the Olympic medals each weigh 18 grams.
They were cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping, according to Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organising committee.
“The concept came after a few discussions. We realised that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower,” Roncin said. “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 company agreed, and “the dream became reality”, he said. “It’s really a bit of metal from the Eiffel Tower.”
HOW WERE THE CHUNKS PREPARED?
They were stripped of paint, polished and varnished for their second life.
They are stamped with “Paris 2024” and the Games logo – which looks like a flame or the face of a woman with a chic bob haircut. The five Olympic rings are also stamped on the iron of the Olympic medals. The Paralympic logo of three swooshes, known as the Agitos, is stamped on the medals for the August 28-September 8 Paralympics.
The iron pieces’ hexagonal form represents France. The French sometimes refer to their country as “L’Hexagone” – the hexagon – because of its shape.
Paris jewellery house Chaumet designed the medals. Six small clasps that hold the iron pieces in the medals are a wink at the 2.5 million rivets that bind the Eiffel Tower together.
Around the iron pieces are disks of gold, silver or bronze. They’re crinkled to reflect the light, making the medals shine. Games organisers say the metal is all recycled, not newly mined.
ARE PARIS’ MEDALS UNIQUE?
Yes. Olympic medals have tended to be quite sober. In what was a first, medals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics contained inlaid jade disks. But Paris is the only host city to include chunks of a famous monument.
“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 said.