Olympics medallists to take a bit of France with them

Paris, February 8

An Olympics medal inlaid with a chunk of the Eiffel Tower. How’s that for a monumental prize?

A hexagonal, polished piece 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-August 11 Paris Games and Paralympics that follow.

Games organisers revealed their revolutionary design today.

Simone Biles has seven medals from her two previous Olympics and LeBron James has two gold 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 medallists at 29 previous Summer Olympics stretching back to 1896 ever owned one quite like these.

By making history at the Games, Paris medallists will take a bit of France and its history home, too.

Here’s a deep dive into the medals that are sure to wow: The 330-metre (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 centre of the Olympics medals each weigh 18 grams (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 organising committee.

“The concept came after a few discussions. We realised that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower,” Roncin said. “We said to ourselves, Hey, what if we approached the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. to see if it’s possible to get a bit of the Eiffel Tower to integrate into the medal?’” The company agreed, and “the dream became reality,” he said. “It’s really a bit of metal from the Eiffel Tower.”

They were stripped of paint, polished and varnished for their

second life. — AP

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