Paris Olympic Medals Revealed; Made With Pieces of Eiffel Tower

Medals that will be awarded at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Paris were unveiled on Thursday with hexagon-shaped tokens forged out of scrap metal from the Eiffel Tower in every gold, silver and bronze medal to be draped over an athlete’s neck.

“The absolute symbol of Paris and France is the Eiffel Tower,” said Thierry Reboul, creative director of Paris 2024. “It’s the opportunity for the athletes to bring back a piece of Paris with them.”

Designed by the jeweller Chaumet, the 18-gram hexagon tokens are made of iron taken from the tower. The back features the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, with the Acropolis to one side and the Eiffel Tower to the other. Paralympics medals feature a view of the Eiffel Tower from underneath and are stamped with Paris 2024 in braille.

The gold medals are made of silver and plated with 6 grams of gold. Each of the medals will come in a dark-blue box from Chaumet and a certificate from the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. that the iron pieces came from the monument. They were cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping.

“The concept came after a few discussions,” said Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee. “We realized 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 Eiffel Tower is made of 18,038 iron parts. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair, it was only intended to stand for 20 years — instead, beach volleyball will be organized at the foot of the global icon this summer.