Paris Olympic Games medals will feature part of the original 1889 Eiffel Tower

“We had to look for the Eiffel Tower, which is the symbol of the country and the capital. We were not satisfied with just drawing it on the medal, we had to look for the connection,” said the head of the Organizing Committee. The only Frenchman to win three golds in three different Games is the expired Tony Estanguet.

More than one of each 5,000 medals These statues, which will be distributed during the Games, which start next July 26, will become the city’s most visited monument and part of one of the country’s symbols.

“The most sought-after metal in gaming, gold, silver and bronze combined with the country’s most delicate metal of the national symbol. “It’s a meeting between both things,” he added.

They worked with Chaumet, one of the world’s most famous jewelers based in the luxurious Place Vendôme, with Estanguet saying they were looking for “something that symbolizes the athletes’ efforts but is also a jewel.”

“Each edition is represented by its own medals and It was important that ours was as beautiful as possible“It shows the best of France and carries a strong message,” Estanguet said, noting that they were also based on medals from the 1900 and 1924 Games, both in Paris.

Athletes also agreed with the concept through the commission chaired by French former Olympic medalist Martin Fourcade, who has won the most medals on his record, assuring that “there is nothing more symbolic than taking a piece of the French heritage”.

The golden design represents a sun, intended to mark the brightness of the country; in the middle of it is the hexagonal piece of the Eiffel Tower (referring to the shape of the map of France) found in the builder’s archive. Workshops of the “Iron Lady”.

On the other hand, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires the goddess Athena to be seen leaving the Panatinaiko stadium in the Greek capital, in order to establish a connection with the ancient games.

But Paris also received permission to include a drawing of the Eiffel Tower on this side, a tribute to Baron Pierre de Courbertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games.

At the Paralympic Games, where a piece of the Eiffel Tower will also be exhibited, the view of the monument is seen from the bottom, and the inscriptions are written in the Braille alphabet, a language created by the Frenchman Louis Braille for the blind in 1825.

French female Paralympic athlete Beatriz Hass, who won the most medals with 20 medals, attracted attention. The significance of the medal “treated like a jewel”.

“This is the first time a jeweler is designing a medal for a Games; it’s a very symbolic event,” said Antoine Arnault, heir to the LVMH luxury brands group and owner of Chaumet.

With this initiative, Paris 2024 “Continues to claim to ‘create’ games that leave a mark”Estanguet speculated on the origins of ideas such as moving the opening ceremony to the waters of the Seine or certain sports to monuments in the capital such as the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais or the Place de la Concorde.