A piece of iron taken from the Eiffel Tower is included in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games‘ gold, silver and bronze medals, revealed by Games organizers Thursday.
An Olympic medal inlaid with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. How’s that for a monumental prize?
A hexagonal, polished chunk of iron taken from the iconic landmark is being embedded in each gold, silver and bronze medal that will be hung around athletes’ necks at the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Games and Paralympics that follow.
Games organizers revealed their revolutionary design on Thursday.
Simone Biles has seven medals from her two previous Olympics and LeBron James has two golds and one bronze from London, Beijing and Athens. But neither of those athletes who are targeting the Paris Games nor any of the roughly 36,600 other medalists at 29 previous Summer Olympics stretching back to 1896 ever owned one quite like these.
By making history at the Games, Paris medalists will take a bit of France and its history home, too.
Here’s a deep dive into the medals that are sure to wow:ARE THESE REALLY EIFFEL TOWER CHUNKS?
Absolutely. The 1,083-foot tall tower is made of 18,038 iron parts. But it’s also getting a bit long in the tooth. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair — which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution — engineer Gustave Eiffel’s tower was only intended to stand for 20 years.
Instead, it just goes on and on — thanks to a bit of rejuvenating surgery from time to time and constant care. The 135-year-old tower is a veteran of two previous Games — in 1900 and 1924, the last held in Paris.
The iron pieces embedded in the center of the Olympic medals each weigh about two-thirds of an ounce.
They were cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping, according to Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee.
