Weeks after taking home the bronze in the men's street skateboarding event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA's Nyjah Huston questioned the condition and quality of his bronze medal. The 29-year-old skateboarder took to social media recently, showing apparent disbelief at how fast his medal had deteriorated and relating it humorously to a war veteran. Huston's candid post sparked an online debate about the durability of Olympic medals.
"These Olympic medals look great when they're brand new, but after letting them sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and then letting my friends wear them over the weekend, they're apparently not as high quality as you would think," Huston said on Instagram. "I mean, look at that thing. It's looking rough, even the front."
"So I don't know... Olympic medals, you gotta maybe step up the quality a little bit," he said.
Huston further wrote, "Medal looks like it went to war and back," adding a raised eyebrow and crying with laughter emoji.
In response, a Paris 2024 spokesperson told People Magazine they were "aware of a social media report from an athlete whose medal is showing damage a few days after it was awarded."
"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," the organisers added in a release.
"The medals are the most coveted objects of the games and the most precious for the athletes. Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals."
