Paris 2024 Is 25 Days Out: What We Already Know About the Medals 🇫🇷
The Paris 2024 medals are the most architecturally ambitious in Olympic history. Each contains a fragment of original wrought iron from the Eiffel Tower — and that one detail is changing how the industry thinks about commemorative medals.
The Paris 2024 medals are the most architecturally ambitious in Olympic history. Each contains a fragment of original wrought iron from the Eiffel Tower — and that one detail is changing how the industry thinks about commemorative medals.
The Iron Inlay Is a Real Thing
Chaumet designed each medal with a hexagonal cutout in the center, holding an 18-gram piece of original Eiffel Tower iron salvaged during 20th-century renovations. The technique itself — recess casting + mechanical inlay — is something any custom-medal factory can replicate at smaller scale for milestone events. Pair a city landmark fragment with your medal and you have a story that lasts decades.
Hexagonal Format Is Back
Round medals have dominated for a century. Paris 2024's hexagonal cutout — a nod to the shape of France itself — gives designers permission to break the round-medal default. Expect copycat hexagonal medals across regional sport events this autumn; if you want originality, look at pentagonal or rhombic forms instead.