The much-awaited Olmypic Games are set to take place in Paris this year from July 26 to August 11. After their excellent show at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, the Indian athletes are expected to shine at the Olympics as well by winning a lot of medals. The revolutionary medal designs were unveiled at the Paris 2024 Headquarters on Thursday (February 8) and the medal winners will take a bit of France and its history back home this time.
The Olympic medals are being inlaid with a chunk of Eiffel Tower, the most emblematic monument in France. A hexagonal, polished piece of iron taken from the iconic landmark is being embedded in each gold, silver and bronze medals that the athletes will win later this year at the Olympic and Parlympic Games.
Eiffel Tower is 330 meters (1,083-foot) tall and is made of 18,038 iron parts. The historic monument has witnessed two Games held in Paris before in 1900 and 1924. The iron pieces of this tower are being embedded at the center of the Olympic medals and the weight of each of them is 18 grams. Interestingly, the iron pieces used are cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping, reveals Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee.
"The concept came after a few discussions. 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 company agreed, and "the dream became reality. It's really a bit of metal from the Eiffel Tower," he said.
The pieces have been stripped of paint, polished and varnished and stamped with "Paris 2024" and the Games logo. At the same time, the five Olympic rings are also stamped on the iron of the medals. For the Paralympic medals, logo of three swooshes, known as the Agitos, is stamped on the medals. Meanwhile, Paris will also become the only host city to include the chunks of a historic monument on the medals.
"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. Having a piece of it is a piece of history," Roncin further added.
