French Olympic swimmer Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, a bronze winner, wondered over the weekend whether a medal he captured is from last summer or 100 years ago.
That’s because the bronze he won in the 4×100-meter medley relay during the Paris 2024 Games appears to be deteriorating faster than a Léon Marchand lap.
He rhetorically questioned on social media whether his medal was from 2024 or 1924, with crying emojis.
Ndoye-Brouard is the latest Paris 2024 Olympian to gently complain that his precious memories are losing their luster four months after the Games.
French newspaper Le Méridional on Saturday published an image of the bronze won by Clement Secchi, Ndoye-Brouard’s teammate in the 4×100 medley, whose medal also appeared to be rapidly losing its luster.
The rough edges of the medal made it look more like another water-loving creature,”crocodile skin“, according to Secchi.
American rugby player and social media star Ilona Maher gave the world its first clues that some medals might be less Olympic-quality when she appeared on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Aug. 12, shortly after of the closing ceremonies.
She took bronze which she and her teammates won in an impressive victory over mighty Australia.
“It’s beautiful (but) it’s getting a little worn,” Maher said, his right index finger twirling the edges of the medal. “It’s a solid piece of metal, it’s a big piece of metal.”
Representatives from the International Olympic Committee and Paris 2024 could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
Each of the medals awarded last summer contains a small piece of iron from the famous Eiffel Tower, which has already presided over three Olympic Games (1900, 1924 and 2024).
Brooke Glatz and Lilia Wood contributed.
