Quality of Paris 2024 Olympic medals criticised after visible deterioration in just one week

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Diver Yasmin Harper, who claimed Britain’s first medal of the Paris Olympics, has admitted that her bronze is already becoming “discoloured”.

Harper won bronze in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard alongside Scarlett Mew Jensen. She competed again on Friday in the women’s 3m springboard final, although without adding another medal to her collection.

Harper was then asked about the quality of the medals after a member of the USA skateboard team criticised the quality of them after his bronze started to deteriorate.

“The medals. Er, there has been some small bits of tarnishing, I will admit, yes,” Harper said. “Yes, I have looked at mine. A little bit [of tarnishing]. I don’t know, I think it’s like water or anything that gets on the metal, it’s making it go a little bit discoloured.”

Asked whether the deterioration bothered Harper, she said: “No, because it’s still a medal.”

USA skateboarder Nyjah Huston first revealed the markedly different condition of his medal just a week after winning it in Paris, with the backside of the medal chipped and losing its bronze colour.

“They’re [the Olympic medals] apparently not as high quality as you’d think,” he added. “It’s looking rough.

“I don’t know, Olympic medals, we gotta step up the quality a little bit. The medal [is] looking like it went to war and back.”

Each medal awarded at this Olympics, including silver and bronze, contains a piece of the Eiffel Tower preserved during renovations to the Paris landmark.

Each forms an 18-gram hexagon in the middle of every medal, and on the back is the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.

The Paris Mint made just over 5,000 medals in total, with 2,600 for the Olympics and 2,400 for the Paralympics. Each weighs around 530g and was designed by the luxury brand Chaumet, which provides a dark-blue box to try to preserve the medal.

The size of the medals at the Paris Games has been remarked upon, but the sizing has been standardised since London 2012 with every summer Games medal measuring 85mm in diameter exactly.

Paris Games organisers say they are looking into the complaints about the medals.

“Paris 2024 is aware of a social media report from an athlete whose medal is showing damage a few days after it was awarded,” a spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

“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.”