Not only will they touch the moon sportingly speaking, but the medalists will take home a piece of the Eiffel Tower. This was announced a few days ago by the organizing committee of the Paris Games when it revealed that the more than 5,000 medals that will be awarded starting July 26 will have an 18-gram fragment of one of the most visited monuments in the world embedded in the obverse. in its original version from 1889. On the reverse, the IOC requires that the goddess Athena appear leaving the Panatinaikó stadium in the Greek capital, as a link with the ancient Games. But Paris has obtained the approval to also include on that side a drawing of the Eiffel Tower, in homage to Baron Pierre de Courbertin, father of the modern Games.
This is the story, from the hand of Chaumet, one of the most famous jewelers in existence, of the medals from this year's Games. Distinction, peculiarity, transcendent trait are always sought. But was it always like this? Has each edition changed the pace in terms of design? Beyond weights and materials, were they always hung from the neck?
What follows is a journey through those medals that were unique in the Olympic journey. From Athens 1896 to Paris 2024 almost everything has changed, except the pride of being successful and receiving the award.
As a first curiosity, it should be noted that no gold medals were distributed in the Greek capital. The winners were awarded silver medals and the runners-up with a copper one. Both the first and second were also honored with olive branches and diplomas. The third was left with nothing. In the immense setting of the Panathenaic marble stadium, where the Athens marathon currently ends, history began to be written in a letter that is maintained today, because if in 2024 the Eiffel Tower is the protagonist, in 1896 what was seen in a of the faces of the medals was the Acropolis.
Paris, always attentive to design, would change everything four years later, in 1900, in the first of the editions on French territory. Neither before nor after did the medals return to a rectangular shape. Here gold, silver and bronze have already appeared to reward the first three.
The Games followed one another and some features were repeated but without a fully established pattern. Until the IOC took action on the matter and called a competition. It was taken by the Florence artist Giuseppe Cassioli. He developed a design that was present on Olympic medals for four decades. From Amsterdam 1928 to Mexico 1968. The name of the headquarters, the year and the edition number were changed but the rest remained. With Nike, the goddess of victory on one side, and on the other a champion carried on the shoulders of the masses, with an Olympic stadium in the background.
If the model was preserved until 1968, why do those from Rome 1960 have a lot of meaning? For two reasons. Because from then on they were hung around the necks of the athletes, in that case with a bronze laurel chain. And because it was the only occasion in which the obverse and reverse of the metal were exchanged. One of the most famous champions to hang a medal around his neck was the barefoot marathoner Abebe Bikila.
More groundbreaking were the Munich 1972 medals, famous for swimmer Mark Spitz's seven gold medals and for the terrorist attack that marked those Games. His awards were particular because the obverse was a novelty: it represented an interpretation of Castor and Pollux, twin sons of Zeus and Lada, patron saints of sporting events and friendship, represented by two naked young men. Gerhard Marcks, of the famous Bauhaus design school, set this standard.
The journey back in time takes us much later to Sydney 2000, which experienced joyful, modern and fantastic Games compared to the erratic edition of Atlanta'96. But his medals were not without controversy.
There were experts who assured that what was seen on the face was not a Greek coliseum, but anathema! Roman, which aroused criticism. On the other hand, a free (very free) interpretation of the fascinating Sydney Opera, next to the Olympic fire.
In more recent times, sustainability, care for the environment, the use of recycled materials have come into play...But always with the goddess of victory Nike fused with Athena. Since 2004 accompanied by the Panathinaikó stadium, in 2016 with more accentuated curves (to reflect the body of the Brazilian woman in Rio)... and so on until reaching Paris 2024. An exciting journey.
