She didn’t expect it. However, the Eiffel Tower is truly the star guest, taking center stage for the Olympic and Paralympic medals presented to the public at the Paris 2024 headquarters this Thursday morning. Not content with appearing on the obverse side of an Olympic medal. In the tradition of the goddess Nike and the Parthenon – a real feat given the strict specifications of the IOC -, the Iron Lady also appears on the front of all medals, regardless of color.
Paris 2024 has in fact approached the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE) to recover, through an agreement that will lead to other projects during the Games, a large part of the capital’s most emblematic monument, as a result of one of its renovations and exceptionally in one piece, which was then stripped , was treated and varnished. “We told them: I want some! »jokes Thierry Reboul, COJO’s executive brand director.
“We wanted the symbol of the medal to match another symbol, that of France, the Eiffel Tower”It steps from the Chaumet mansion, one of the iconic houses of the LVMH Group (premium partner of Paris 2024), and the first jeweler to set up in 1812 on the glamorous Place Vendôme. One of the household customers, evidenced by a carefully preserved order register.
“We decided to treat this piece of the Eiffel Tower in a hexagonal shape, so that it could be set like a precious stone in fine jewelry”
Clementine Messonat, Head of Design at Chaumet
“Chaumet immediately understood what we meant”, continues Joachim Roncin, Paris 2024 design director. And combining his knowledge and his habit of special orders followed exact briefs to the letter including diameter (85mm) and thickness (9.2mm). Antoine Arnault, LVMH’s Image and Environment Director, assures us: “It was very important that it was not just a medal. Chaumet is a jeweler known throughout the world for his setting and facing skills. We had to offer something extraordinary, and this became the jewel for the medal. »
“So we decided to treat this piece of the Eiffel Tower (18 grams per medal) in the shape of a hexagon, to set it like a precious stone in a beautiful jewel, then to place it in the center of a medallion, and a brilliant work which is dear to the house”Details Clémentine Massonnat, Design Manager, is aware that the design of such objects “Only happens once in a lifetime.”
Benoit Verhule, only the thirteenth workshop manager since Chaumet’s creation in 1780 and himself a Marathon enthusiast, was equally aware of the stakes, in repurposing the drawing. “We discussed a lot about volume and facing. It was necessary to enliven the medal, initially a fairly static object, to put all the symbols on it and make it easily recognizable. »
The Eiffel Tower is also displayed behind the Olympic medal along with the goddess Nike and the Parthenon. (S. Bowe/The Team)
Digging into the archives, studying the crown design, one of the jeweller’s specialties, and exchanging with the Paris 2024 teams for nearly six months, the 529 gram medal was created. Rays radiate in relief from the Eiffel Tower’s iron hexagons, which are irregular to play with light and thus give the effect of movement. “The Gem”. “This is the first example of our great creative partnershipUnderlines Antoine Arnault. Good to see this concrete result. »
“Besides being beautiful and attractive, it is meaningful”
Athletes Commission President Martin Fourcade about the medal
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) does not impose figures for overs, unlike the IOC, the COJOP-Chaumet pair chose to represent a low-angle view of the bottom of the Eiffel Tower on Paralympic medals. The inscription Paris 2024 is also engraved in Braille for the blind. If the color of the ribbon is different (from the specialist neret) (red for the Paralympics, blue for the Olympics), all medals are engraved with the names of the respective disciplines, on the edges.
The obverse side of the Paris 2024 Paralympic medal features a low-angle view of the Eiffel Tower below. (S. Bou/L’Equipe)
5,084 copies (2,618 for the Olympics, 2,466 for the JOPs, slightly more than the usual number of athletes awarded…) will be produced by the Monae de Paris. Even the Vashikaran award ceremony can shake up a bit. “We are working on a protocol”, confirms Joachim Roncin. Something that many athletes are already dreaming of. Martin Fourcade, as President of the Athletes’ Commission, participated in the design of the medal. “I think it’s beautiful because it ticks all the boxes. Apart from being beautiful and attractive, it is meaningful”.
He also explained why the idea of a medal to be shared with management, which was presented by the Paris 2024 bid committee in Lausanne in July 2017, was ultimately not accepted. “We have thought a lot since 2018 about a very exciting concept but very complicated to execute. Sharing your medal with those who helped us win it was a very attractive idea on paper. But who should you give a coach more than a physiotherapist? We put the athlete at odds with his management…”
