American skateboarder Nyjah Huston recently took to social media, not to show off the high quality of his Olympic achievement, but to highlight the poor condition of his medal less than two weeks after receiving it.
The 29-year-old displayed the wear and tear of his bronze medal on Instagram.
“Alright, so these Olympic medals look great when they’re brand new, but after letting it sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and then letting my friends wear it over the weekend, they’re apparently not as high quality as you would think,” he said.
“I mean, look at that thing. It’s looking rough. Even the front is starting to chip off a little.”
Huston added in a later post that the “medal looks like it went to war and back.”
American skateboarder, Nyjah Huston who won Bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics has reservations about the quality of the medal after a week in possession of it.😱
🎥 @nyjah pic.twitter.com/jT4tYmdb3X
— Sports Radio Brila FM (@Brilafm889) August 10, 2024
He wasn’t the only bronze medalist to comment on the state of their trophy. Yasmin Harper, who won Team GB’s first medal of Paris 2024 by claiming bronze with partner Scarlett Mew Jensen in the women’s 3m synchronized springboard diving, also noted some issues.
“There’s been some small bits of tarnishing,” Harper said, according to the BBC. “I think it’s water or anything that gets under the medal that’s making it go a little bit discolored, but I’m not sure.”
However, Harper added that she wasn’t too bothered by the situation “because it’s still a medal,” in contrast to Huston’s remark that the Olympics need to take note: “Olympic medals, you gotta maybe step up the quality a little bit.”
Olympic medals are made from various materials depending on the type of medal. During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the gold medals were mostly made of pure silver, with 6 grams of gold plating on top. Silver medals were made of pure silver, while bronze medals were composed of 95% copper and 5% zinc.
Bronze reacts with oxygen in the air if unprotected, forming a dull patina, which could explain the damage to Huston’s medal. How quickly bronze degrades depends on the proportion of metals in the alloy, with cheaper metals often speeding up the process. According to Oxford Economics, bronze medals are worth about $4.60 USD.
The Paris 2024 medals were designed by French luxury jeweler Chaumet, and the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission decided to have the medals made with a piece of iron taken from the Eiffel Tower during renovations in the 20th century.
Paris 2024 organizers said they were aware of Huston’s comments, with a Games spokesperson adding, “Paris 2024 is working closely with the Monnaie de Paris, the institution tasked with the production and quality control of the medals, and together with the national Olympic committee of the athlete concerned, in order to appraise the medal to understand the circumstances and cause of the damage.”
“The medals are the most coveted objects of the Games and the most precious for the athletes,” they continued. “Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved identically to the originals.”