Are medals awarded during the Paris 2024 Olympics losing their luster?
Bronze-winning Olympic French swimmer Yohann Ndoye-Brouard wondered over the weekend if a medal he captured is from this past summer or 100 years ago?
That’s because the bronze he won in the 4×100-meter medley relay during the Paris 2024 Games seems to be deteriorating faster than a Léon Marchand lap.
He rhetorically questioned on social media if his medal was from 2024 or 1924, with crying emojis.
Ndoye-Brouard is the latest Paris 2024 Olympian to gently complain that their prized mementos are losing their shine four months after the Games.
The French newspaper Le Méridional on Saturday published a picture of the bronze won by Ndoye-Brouard ‘s 4×100 medley teammate Clement Secchi, whose medal also appeared to be quickly losing its luster.
The medal’s rough edges made it look more like another water-loving creature, “Peau de crocodile,” according to Secchi.
U.S. rugby player and social media star Ilona Maher gave the world one the first clues some medals could be less than Olympic quality when she appeared on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Aug. 12, shortly after closing ceremonies.
She whipped out the bronze that she and her teammates won in a stunning victory over powerhouse Australia.
“It’s gorgeous (but) it is wearing a little bit,” Maher said, her right index finger swirling the edges of the medal. “It’s a solid hunk of metal, it’s a great piece of metal.”
Representatives of the International Olympic Committee and Paris 2024 could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
The medals awarded last summer each contain a small piece of iron from the famed Eiffel Tower, which has now stood over three Olympics (1900, 1924 and 2024).
Brooke Glatz and Lilia Wood contributed.
