Adorned with huge Olympic rings, the Eiffel Tower will serve as a backdrop for the beach volleyball and blind football events that will take place on the Champs de Mars. But it is also the heroine of the medals that will be awarded to the winners of the Paris 2024 Games.
The Iron Lady in the spotlight
To create these 5,084 medals, Paris 2024 called upon a famous jeweler from Place Vendôme: Chaumet, part of the LVMH group. The latter chose to place the Eiffel Tower at the heart of the medals. Its crosspieces adorn their ribbons, made by the Saint-Etienne company Neyret. It also appears behind the goddess of victory that adorns the obverse of the Olympic medals. Finally, it can be found on the Paralympic medals, seen from a low angle and bearing the inscriptions “Paris” and “2024” in Braille.
If she appears on it, the Iron Lady is also found in the medals. Because the hexagon placed at their heart is none other than a fragment of the Eiffel Tower, resulting from the renovation work it has undergone since its construction between 1887 and 1889. It is composed of 18 grams of puddled iron, known for its robustness and manufactured in the Lorraine factory of Pompey.
Medals made from recycled materials
These fragments of the Eiffel Tower were struck with the emblem of the Paris 2024 Games in the workshops of the Monnaie de Paris. One hundred years after the 1924 Games, for which it had already produced the medals, the institution on the Quai de Conti returned to the service of the Olympics. In 2024, around forty operations were necessary to produce medals for the winners of the Paris 2024 Games. Between their four strikes, they were heated to 480°C, before passing through a mixture of acid and water to remove any impurities.
Despite a strike by employees of the Monnaie de Paris in March and April 2024, production was completed on time. The result: medals measuring 85 millimeters in diameter and 9.2 millimeters thick, with a weight of between 529 grams for gold and 455 grams for bronze. They are made entirely of reused materials, like fragments of the Eiffel Tower.
The first Olympic medals will be awarded on July 27 to the winners of the mixed team rifle shooting event, held in Châteauroux.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
