France Replacing 2024 Paris Olympic Medals After Athletes Complain of Deterioration

Over 100 medals have been returned to France.
A gold medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics is displayed during a media tour.
A gold medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics is displayed during a media tour. / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Over 100 medals from the 2024 Paris Olympics have been returned to the Monnaie de Paris after athletes have proven instances of deterioration since the Games ended in August, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

France intends to replace the medals sent to them from the Olympic athletes. The International Olympic Committee confirmed that the return process will begin soon, and they will be looking into what caused this deterioration.

“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, via AP. “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 5,084 medals given out at the Olympic Games last summer were created by Paris jewelry house Chaumet. The hexagon shape in the middle contained iron from the Eiffel Tower.

Multiple Olympians posted about their deteriorating medals on social media, including American skateboarder Nyjah Huston and French swimmers Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Clément Secchi, who described their medals appearing to have "crocodile skin."

“Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals,” the IOC said.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.