An Olympic medal is a prize to display proudly, but some 2024 Paris Olympics winners must emphasize sentiment over appearance. That is because several medalists have revealed the rapidly deteriorating condition of their awards.
On Saturday, French bronze medal-winning Olympic swimmer Yohann Ndoye-Brouard posted a photo of his prize from the 4x100-meter medley relay. Significant wear and tear is visible on both sides of the medal.
"Paris 1924," Ndoye-Brouard captioned the photos, suggesting his roughly five-month-old medal looks a century old.
😭😭 Paris 1924 pic.twitter.com/WzfoV3ECQt
— Yohann Ndoye Brouard (@yohann_2911) December 28, 2024
Ndoye-Brouard shares this problem with his teammate Clement Secchi. Earlier that day, French newspaper Le Méridional published a picture of Secchi's similarly decaying bronze medal. Each medal contains a small piece of iron from the Eiffel Tower.
The French athletes' complaints echo a concern raised the day after the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony. Ilona Maher, a bronze-winning rugby player representing the United States, experienced such problems with her medal. Maher appeared on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on Aug. 12, revealing her medal was already chipping.
"It's gorgeous, [but] it is wearing a little bit," Maher said. "It's a solid hunk of metal; it's a great piece of metal."
The International Olympic Committee and Paris 2024 have not publicly addressed the condition of the medals.
