LVMH ‘silent’ as Paris Olympics medals designed by luxury giant set to be replaced

Updated on: Jan 21, 2025, 14:31:36 IST

By Adrija Dey

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The Chaumet-designed Paris 2024 Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals, featuring a hexagon-shaped piece of iron taken from the original Eiffel Tower, (Bloomberg)

Paris Olympics 2024's medals were designed by LVMH-owned brand. Despite the promise of luxury design, they failed basic quality check.

The 2024 Olympics’ prestigious medals were designed by the LVHM-owned Chaumet brand. Chaumet is a luxury jewellery and watchmaker. The sportsmen and athletes who bagged the medals after their incredible performances, much to their dismay, found their quality worsening when they took the medals back home. Now, The New York Times reports that ‘LVMH has no comment’ on the developments.

The International Olympic Committee has apologised and says it will find replacements, while Monnaie de Paris, the French mint, which produced the medals, has taken responsibility. It blamed the problem on a technical issue related to varnish. And LVMH has been happy to let the other organisations do the talking. A spokesman for the company said because it did not make the medals and is not responsible for them, according to a report by The New York Times.

What went wrong?

Many sportsmen who participated in the Olympics and won medals found the medal quality worsening, with the sheen, refinement, and finish deteriorating over time.

Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, a French swimmer who won a bronze medal, upon taking it home found that the bronze coating had stripped away, revealing an older medal beneath, marked ‘Paris 1924.’

As per the New York Times report, the stripping away of the medal’s coating seems to be more common with bronze medals. Further, the report mentioned that The International Olympic Committee apologised and promised replacements.

ALSO READ: Bernard Arnault has been dubbed the Olympics' godfather. Here's how he built LVMH's fortune

More about LVMH

LVMH is a French-based multinational conglomerate and is the world’s leading luxury group. They own high-end luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy and more. LVMH is the acronym for Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. LVMH was founded in 1987 when Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy merged, beckoning a new beginning for the luxury industry. This time at the Olympics, LVMH was the corporate sponsor to foray into sports.

Recently LVHM overtook Novo Nordisk to become the most valuable company in Europe. As per a Forbes report, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration events.

ALSO READ: Missed Donald Trump's inauguration speech? Here's a quick 5-point recap

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adrija Dey
Adrija Dey’s proclivity for observation fuels her storytelling instinct. As a lifestyle journalist, she crafts compelling, relatable narratives across diverse touchpoints of the human experience, including wellness, mental health, relationships, interior design, home decor, food, travel, and fashion that gently nudge readers toward living a little better. For her, stories exist in flesh and bones, carried by human vessels and shaped through everyday endeavours. It is the small stories we live and share that make us human. After all, humans and their lores are the most natural and raw repositories of stories, and uncovering them, for her, is akin to peeling an orange under a winter afternoon sun. Always up for a chat, she believes the best stories come from unfiltered yapping, where "too much information" is kind of the point. A graduate of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, and an alumna of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, Adrija spends her idle hours cocooned with herbal tea and a gripping thriller, scribbling inner monologues she loosely calls poetic pieces, often with her succulents in attendance. On lazier days, she can be found binge-watching, for the nth time, one from her comfort-show holy trinity: The Office (US), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or Modern Family. Dancing by herself to her peppy playlists, however, is an everyday ritual she swears by religiously.Read More

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