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

Click here to view this content.

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 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 and preserve their 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 a width of 85mm exactly.

Click here to view this content.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.