Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Olympic medals revealed

Paris 2024 unveiled the design of the 5,084 Olympic and Paralympic medals, created in the Maison Chaumet workshops.

A sublime detail, all will feature an authentic piece of the most legendary of Paris monuments.

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The Parisian

Updated February 8, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.

It is the object of all desires, the Holy Grail of an athlete's life.

The Olympic medal.

To hope to hang it around their neck, they have and will sweat countless hours, suffer, sometimes cry.

They all dream of it, but only a few will experience this unique moment.

The Paris Games organizing committee unveiled this Thursday, February 8, the design of the medals for its Olympic and Paralympic Games, already a highlight of this Paris 2024 edition, the secrets of which we are telling you.

With shining eyes, Clémentine Massonnat, head of design at Chaumet, the jewelry house which designed the awards, sums up the power of the message transmitted by the Olympic and Paralympic medals: “Whether they are gold, bronze or silver was not enough.

They had to be from Paris.

»

Indeed, at the heart of the object so coveted by thousands of athletes is an authentic piece of the Eiffel Tower, a high symbol of French heritage, cut into a hexagon and set, like a precious stone.

Athena, from Athens to Paris

The medals of the Olympic and Paralympic Games will have a common face, with this steel hexagon on which Marianne's face is engraved, mixed with the flame, emblem of the Paris 2024 Games, placed on asymmetrical spokes.

The other side will be different, meeting specifications from the Olympic committee.

On the Olympic medals, an eternal figure, present since the birth of the modern Games: the Acropolis and Athena Nike, the goddess of victory emerging from the Panathenaic Stadium.

And, for the first time, a personal touch from the organizers, the IOC having authorized Paris 2024 to engrave the Eiffel Tower there.

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Obverse of the medal

Credit: Le Parisien / Delphine Goldsztejn

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Obverse of the medal

Credit: Le Parisien / Delphine Goldsztejn

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Obverse of the medal

Credit: Le Parisien / Delphine Goldsztejn

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Obverse of the medal

Credit: Le Parisien / Delphine Goldsztejn

The obverse of the medal meets very precise specifications set by the International Olympic Committee.

This unique facet of the Olympic Games illustrates the rebirth of the Games in Greece.

The goddess of victory Athena Nike is depicted next to the Acropolis and emerging from the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the modern Olympic Games were first held in 1896.

To the left of the goddess, a unique fact, Paris 2024 has obtained authorization from the IOC to engrave an Eiffel Tower there.

With the piece of the Eiffel Tower directly set on the other side, the most famous Parisian monument will be present on both sides of the medal.

“We try to surprise each time,” underlines Thierry Reboul, brand and events director at Paris 2024. The athletes will have around their necks what we hold most dear in the emotional sense of the term, these medals tell an absolute story.

»

A piece of the Eiffel Tower around your neck

Born in the offices of Pulse, headquarters of the Games organizing committee, the idea of ​​a medal made up of an authentic piece of the Eiffel Tower was transmitted to Chaumet, the house of the LVMH group (to which "le Parisien" belongs ), responsible for designing the object.

“We really thought with our know-how, considering this medal as a special order.

»

Benoit Verhulle, Chaumet workshop manager

The piece of the Eiffel Tower was treated as a hexagon, “to recall France” and placed in the center of the medal.

“At the center, too, of an influence and faceting work,” she continues.

This draws the eye to the piece of the Eiffel Tower, reflects the light (Editor's note: reference to Paris, City of Lights) and will allow the athlete who will wear the medal to shine.

» The Eiffel Tower insert weighs 18 g. 

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Weight 529g

Credit: Chaumet

The gold medal of the Olympic Games

Weight: 525g

Credit: Chaumet

The silver medal of the Olympic Games

Weight: 525g

Credit: Chaumet

The bronze medal of the Olympic Games

Weight: 455g

Credit: Chaumet

The Summer Olympics medal is necessarily round, with a diameter of 85 mm and a thickness of 9.2 mm.

It must also weigh around 500 g.

The Eiffel Tower insert, designed in a hexagon to “recall France”, weighs 18 g and is placed in the center of the medal.

In the end, the gold medal weighs 529 g (with 6 g of gold, according to the IOC standard), the silver one 525 and the bronze one, 455. 

The rays around the insert are asymmetrical, to better reflect the light.

Like a precious stone, the hexagon has been set, the “clou de Paris” used evoking the rivets of the Eiffel Tower.

“By paying attention to the smallest detail, we wanted to be there and be as proud as the athletes who spend so much time training, who sometimes sacrifice their private lives,” underlines Benoit Verhulle, Chaumet workshop manager .

The creation process lasted several months.

The first sketches were made by hand, with a felt-tip pen or pencil.

They were then modeled in 3D to create resin models.

Different sizes of hexagon, radiation, relief and touch were tested.

The resin piece then allowed us to project ourselves towards “gouache”, a hand-painted drawing representing the finished object as faithfully as possible.

Benoît Verhulle, Chaumet workshop manager, Place Vendôme, in Paris (I).

Credit: Chaumet

“We were inspired by the heritage of Maison Chaumet and Paris,” explains Clémentine Massonnat, referring in particular to the geometric solar motifs of the medal, which we find on certain hair jewelry created in the early 1900s. 

The Paralympics in red

A blue ribbon for Olympic medals, a red for Paralympic medals.

On these, a low-angle view under the Eiffel Tower has been engraved with the inscription Paris 2024 in braille.

Credit: Le Parisien / Delphine Goldsztejn

The name of the event on the edge

To reward athletes from 329 Olympic competitions and 549 Paralympic events, a total of 5,084 medals will be produced.

They will be struck by the Paris Mint, and the name of the proof will be engraved on the edge.

The first ones will be distributed on Saturday July 27, around noon, for the men's 10 meter rifle shooting podium.

“It’s a very, very moving special order for us,” smiles Clémentine Massonnat.

We are the only jewelry house to have had the chance to design a Games medal, it only happens once in a lifetime.

» 

Credit: Le Parisien / Paul-Antoine Leclercq

What did the medals from previous editions look like?

Since 1896 and the first edition of the modern Olympic Games, medals have been distributed to the best athletes.

Their shape has always been round with one exception, those of the 1900 Paris Games.

During the 20th century, the designs of medals changed very little.

They were even identical between the Games in Amsterdam in 1928 and those in Mexico in 1968, with the opposite side an Olympic champion carried in triumph by the crowd in front of the Olympic Stadium, and the opposite side the goddess of victory holding a palm in left hand and a winner's crown in the right hand. 

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Writing

Sandrine Lefèvre

Realization

Stanislas de Livonnière

Development

Fabien Casaleggio and Thomas Lecomte

Photo

Delphine Goldsztejn, Paul-Antoine Leclercq, Chaumet and CIO