Less than six months after the 2024 Paris Olympics, some athletes are confronting an unexpected disappointment: Their gold, silver and bronze medals have begun to deteriorate.
Athletes to receive replacements
Even before the Olympics had ended, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston shared a photo on his Instagram story of his bronze medal already looking worn, as People reported at the time.
Since Huston shared the picture, many more athletes have come forward to complain about degradation, according to ABC News.
“French swimmers Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Clément Secchi recently posted images of their medals on social media, describing them as looking like ’crocodile skin,' or dating back to 1924,” ABC News reported.
After athletes voiced their frustrations, the Monnaie de Paris — also referred to as the French mint, which is the producer of France’s coins — took action to address their concerns, according to the official Monnaie de Paris website.
“The Monnaie de Paris has taken the issue of damaged medals very seriously since the first exchange requests in August, and has mobilized its internal teams,” the French mint said in a statement, according ABC News. “Since then, the company has modified and optimized its relative varnishing process. The Monnaie de Paris will replace all damaged medals at the athletes’ request during the first quarter of 2025.”
The Monnaie de Paris declined to say how many medals have been replaced.
However, La Lettre, a French publication, reported that more than 100 medals have already been swapped out, according ABC News.
With 5,084 medals produced for both the Olympics and Paralympics, according the the Olympics' official website, it proves the scale of the issue is not insignificant.
The Associated Press also reached out to the French Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee for a definitive count of affected medals, but like the Monnaie de Paris, they declined to comment, according to ABC News.
Who makes Olympic medals?
The medals awarded at the Paris Olympics were crafted by Monnaie de Paris, the French mint, and designed by Chaumet, the renowned French luxury jewelry and watch brand, per The New York Times.
Each medal featured a preserved fragment of the original Eiffel Tower.
“Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals,” the IOC said to The Associated Press.
Gary Hall’s medals lost in LA fires
Although Olympian Gary Hall Jr.‘s medals were not part of the deteriorating batch from Paris, he too will soon receive medal replacements.
The American swimmer, who competed in the 1990s and 2000s, lost all 10 of his Olympic medals in the devastating LA fires, and the IOC will be replacing all 10, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Hall, a Type 1 diabetic, only managed to grab his insulin, a few sentimental items and his dog before the flames claimed his home and his medals.
“The damage is more than just a dollar amount. The memories of what those Olympic medals represent. … I can never get those back. I can never get any of the things back. This all happened so fast. I would say within three minutes. Three minutes is what I had to collect things and get out,” Hall said in an interview with CBS News, according to The Athletic.