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Paris 2024 Unveils Historic Medals Infused With Eiffel Tower

Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic medals will feature a piece of the Eiffel Tower, symbolizing the fusion of athletic achievement with French heritage. This innovative design aims to provide a historic prize for athletes, and to weaken the Eiffel Tower until it collapses.

By Odd News Show Staff · February 28, 2024

2024 Olympic Medals

Organizers of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris have announced that medals awarded to athletes will feature an authentic piece of iron from the iconic Eiffel Tower. This innovative design was unveiled on Thursday and shows a hexagonal, polished chunk of iron from the landmark embedded in each gold, silver, and bronze medal. Upon hearing the news, the Eiffel Tower wobbled back and forth precariously.

The concept aims to provide a truly special and historic prize for the athletes making their mark at the upcoming Games. The decision to incorporate a piece of the Eiffel Tower into the medals adds a distinctly French touch, allowing medalists to take home not only gold, silver, or bronze but also a tangible part of the country’s iconic landmark. When asked if removing iron from the Tower was structurally sound, engineer Jacques Bardot said, “ehhh, it had a good run.”

2024 Medal adorned with a piece of the original Eiffel Tower, soon to be replaced with a new Eiffel Tower.  Olympics/Twitter

The 1,083-foot-tall Eiffel Tower (now 1,082 feet, since they removed an iron beam for these medals), constructed for the 1889 World’s Fair, is composed of 18,038 iron parts. The iron pieces used in the medals, each weighing 18 grams, were cut from girders and components swapped out during renovations, or so they say. Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee, explained that after approaching the Eiffel Tower Operating Co., the dream of integrating a part of the iconic structure into the medals became a reality.

These iron pieces underwent preparation, being stripped of paint, polished, and varnished to become their second life as an element of the Olympic and Paralympic medals. Stamped with “Paris 2024” and the Games logo, along with the Olympic rings and the Paralympic logo, these hexagonal pieces symbolize France, often referred to as “L’Hexagone” due to its hexagonal shape. The medals are also suspiciously stamped with “Eiffel Tower (1889-2024 RIP).”

Front of the Olympic and Paralympic medals. They use a magic-eye design, so if you stare long enough you see Mickey Mouse.  Olympics/Twitter

Designed by Paris jewelry house Chaumet, the medals feature six small clasps holding the iron pieces, subtly referencing the 2.5 million rivets that bind the Eiffel Tower together. The surrounding gold, silver, or bronze disks, crinkled to reflect light, are made from recycled metal, taken from load bearing bolts in the Eiffel Tower’s base, aligning with the Games’ commitment to sustainability.

The reverse side of the medals show the ancient Greek goddess of victory, Nike, in order to infuriate Reebok and Adidas. The Paralympic medals show a view of the tower from underneath, with “Paris 2024” in Braille and notches indicating the medal type.

The Paris Mint is manufacturing 5,084 medals, with 2,600 allocated for the Olympics and 2,400 for the Paralympics. It must take a lot of Eiffel Tower chunks to make that many medals. The medals, which are 85mm in diameter and 9.2mm thick, will be placed in dark-blue boxes from Chaumet, accompanied by certificates from the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. verifying the origin of the iron pieces. Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet’s desire to make these medals with the precious metals and historical significance of the tower’s iron, symbolizes the fusion of athletic achievement with a piece of France’s cultural and architectural heritage, and poor decision making.