Chaumet-designed Paris 2024 Olympic medals flaked, rusted and had to be replaced

Chaumet, the LVMH jewellery house, designed the 5,084 medals awarded at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, each cast with a piece of Eiffel Tower iron and minted by the French state mint, Monnaie de Paris. Within weeks of the Games, medals began to flake, chip and corrode — athletes reported damaged bronze and silver medals, some with rust-like staining, and the defects quickly became a news story.

By January 2025, French media reported that more than 100 defective medals had been returned by disgruntled athletes, and the International Olympic Committee confirmed the scale of the problem. The worst-affected were the bronze medals; the culprit cited was a change in the finish, after a previously used varnish component was banned under new regulations and had to be replaced at short notice.

The design was a prestige project for Chaumet — the first time an LVMH house had created the Olympic medal — and the failure pointed back to the supply chain: the luxury designer drew the medal, but the state mint manufactured it and controlled the materials. When the coating wore off and the medals tarnished, the maker had to answer for the finish.