Saint-Denis (France) – Gold, silver, bronze, the medals of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games presented on Thursday, February 8, will also be “Eiffel Tower-shaped”, with a hexagonal piece of the 'Iron Lady' set in each of the 5,084 award.
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The face of the medals is decorated with an iron hexagon from the Eiffel Tower and with the Paris-2024 logo, from which rays emanate engraved on the metal of the medal.
On the reverse, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) imposes the representation of the Greek goddess of victory Nike, the Panathenaic Stadium and the Acropolis, but Paris-2024 has obtained exceptional authorization to add the drawing of the Eiffel Tower.
The discipline for which the medal is awarded is inscribed on the edge of the medal.
For Paralympic medals, the figures on the back of the medal are not imposed, so the drawing will be a lower view of the Eiffel Tower, with the inscription Paris-2024 in universal Braille.
The president of the Olympic Games Organization Committee (OCOG), Tony Estanguet, explained on Thursday when unveiling the medals that the idea of the Eiffel Tower “was received with consensus and we liked it.” He also thanked the mayor of Paris and the Eiffel Tower Society for informing the COJO that “parts of the Eiffel Tower remained unusable.”
“A piece of France”
“To take a medal is to take a piece of history, but now to take this Olympic medal is also to take a piece of France, a fragment of our heritage,” Martin Fourcade, president of the OCOG athletes' commission and champion, declared enthusiastically to the press. Olympic.
The 18 grams of Eiffel Tower set in each medal have been extracted from the pieces of the 'Iron Lady' from the renovations of the monument and which have been kept under top secret in hangars on the outskirts of Paris.
“It is a historic day, a unique project and the perfect representation of the ambition we have put into this sponsorship,” said Antoine Arnault, vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Christian Dior SE holding company, which controls LVMH.
That luxury group announced its sponsorship of the Olympic Games. OO. last summer. Chaumet jewelry, owned by LVMH, was in charge of designing these medals, which will be manufactured by the national monetary institution Monnaie in Paris.
Each one will be 85 mm in diameter, 9.2 mm thick and different weights: 529 grams for the gold medal, 525 grams for the silver medal and 455 grams for the bronze medal.
The weight, size, shape, representations on the back of the medals or the prohibition of perforating the object are conditions imposed by the IOC.
Make the athlete shine
“That limits us in the creative process but that's what makes it fun,” explains Benoît Verhulle, head of the workshop. The creation was carried out in the highest secrecy, as only five people were informed of this “very special request” in Chaumet, highlights Clémentine Massonnat, in charge of the creation.
It was necessary to delve into the archives of this jewelry store that has been present for 250 years in Paris's Place Vendôme, and which counted Gustave Eiffel himself among its clients. The creators have been inspired by the wedding or commemorative medals created at the beginning of the 20th century, by the radiant appearance of the diadems, a specialty of the house, or by the hexagonal emeralds of the 1950s and 1960s.
It was decided to place the piece of the Eiffel Tower “in the center of the medal, give it a hexagonal shape reminiscent of France and place it as a center that radiates faceted rays in gold, reminiscent of the brilliance of France,” explains Clémentine Massonnat.
May the athlete shine even more after the achievement achieved
The rays and the faceting of the medal also allow “the eye to be drawn to that piece of the Eiffel Tower, and the medal to return the light when the athlete has it around his neck,” he adds.
“The DNA of our house is to give life to inert pieces,” explains Benoît Berhulle. “It was necessary to play with the light (…) when we manipulate or play with the light on this medal, the rays trap this light and return it in a completely different way,” details the head of the workshop.
“We hope this allows the athlete to shine even more after the achievement,” he says proudly.
Everything should remind you of Paris, even the small details. That is why the rays are reminiscent of the city of lights and the “claw setting” method, used to embed the piece of the Eiffel Tower, simulates finishing off each of the vertices of the hexagon with small golden nails, a reference to rivets. of the Eiffel tower.
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