Details of the Peeling Plating of Medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics

On August 8, 2024, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston posted a video claiming that just ten days after winning the bronze medal in the men's street skateboarding event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, his medal had problems such as peeling plating, rusting, blackening, and rough surfaces.

In the video, Huston showed the medal in poor condition and said, "It feels like the quality is obviously not as good as imagined. (The back) looks very rough, even the front is the same, (the plating) is starting to come off... Olympic medals, you might need to improve the quality a bit." He also added in another post: "The medal looks like it came back after going through a war. The quality of the medal should be improved."

The medals of this Paris Olympics were designed by Chaumet, a luxury jewelry brand under the French luxury goods giant LVMH Group, and manufactured by the Paris Mint. Except for the silver medals, other medals are decorated with gold plating.

Analysis suggests that the specific composition of the medals at this Olympics varies from previous editions. Gold medals are actually mainly made of silver with a layer of gold plating. Bronze medals are usually made of a mixture of copper, zinc, and tin, known as bronze. If bronze is not protected, it will combine with oxygen in the air to form a dull copper rust, which might be the reason for Huston's medal damage. The degradation rate of bronze depends on the proportion of metals in the alloy, and cheaper metals usually accelerate this process.

On August 10, 2024, the Paris Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games issued a statement saying that it has noticed on social media that an athlete's medal was damaged a few days after it was awarded. The organizing committee is working closely with the Paris Mint, which is responsible for medal manufacturing and quality management, as well as the Olympic Committee of the athlete's country to assess the medal and understand the situation and cause of the damage. The Paris Organizing Committee promised that after clarifying the situation, it will replace the damaged medal for the athlete, and the process of the new medal will be exactly the same as the original one.

Previously, there were also medal quality issues at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. At that time, at least 130 medals were returned to the organizing committee due to rusting or black spots. Most of these problem medals were bronze medals. Mario Andrada, a spokesperson for the Rio Organizing Committee, said that the most common problem was that the medals' glossy paint peeled off due to dropping, impact, or mishandling, causing rusting or blackening of the damaged areas. Also, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, there was an incident of "the gold medal's coating peeling off".