Don't bite your Paris Olympic medal as bits might come off!

The picture explains:

Image: MikeB

There are reports of the medals quickly deteriorating - within days. More embarrassment for the organisers. The medals were manufactured by a third party business and they incorporate some metal from the Eiffel Tower. 

Let me add a bit of detail on this based on a report about it in The Times today.  It is a bronze medal won by Nyah Huston.

The quality of the medals at the Paris Games has been called into question. Huston is an American skateboarder. He highlighted the poor condition of the bronze medal he won in the men's street competition.

He recorded a video at his home in Laguna Beach, California. He said: "All right, so these Olympic medals look great when they're brand-new. But after letting it sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and letting my friends wear it over the weekend.." (Did his friends abuse the medal??)

Huston, 29, flipped over the medal to reveal that the bronze colouring was chipped away in several places around the grey centre. As mentioned, at least part of the medal has been made with metal taken from the Eiffel Tower.

He added that, "They are apparently not as high quality as you would think."

He zoomed in on the medal with this commentary: "Look at this thing it's looking rough. Even the front is starting to chip off a little. I don't know. Olympic medals, you gotta step up the quality a little bit."

In a caption to a picture of his medal he wrote: "Medal looking like it went to war and back."

And he later wrote a follow-up message acknowledging: "I guess the medals are meant to be in cases."

It looks as though he thinks the medal should have been provided with a custom-made case to protect them. Alternatively they should be of higher quality!

The company that made the medals is called Paris Mint. They made just over 5000 medals with 2600 for the Olympics and 2400 for the Paralympics. Each weighs about 530 grams. They were designed by Chaumet, a luxury jewellery brand.

Gold medals are required to be made from at least 92.5% silver and contain a minimum of 6 g of gold often as a coating. The value of the medal is about £600 sterling. Bronze medals are usually made from a mix of copper, zinc and tin.

“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.”

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Child rapist allowed to compete at Olympics while an equestrian who gently whipped a horse is banned?

Dujardin banned from Olympics while van de Velde is allowed to compete by Michael Broad

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This is a short note on something which troubled Nick Ferrari on LBC this morning. LBC is a popular British radio station and Nick Ferrari is a very popular, long-standing presenter on that station. He saw a disconnect or a lack of equality in the way two Olympians have been treated by the authorities.

Charlotte Dujardin is all over the news because she was secretly videoed using a lunging whip on a horse being trained for dressage, ridden by a young rider. This is a very long whip which might at worst sting a horse but it's a fairly benign training instrument which is an extension of the arms. That said she made a terrible mistake in whipping this trainee horse. She admitted it. But her illustrious career as a former gold medallist is in tatters because of the revelation.

She's been banned from going for another gold medal which would have made her Britain’s most decorated female Olympian in her own right. And she has lost funding from the UK authorities. Her reputation is in tatters as mentioned.

She's not been been charged with any animal welfare offence. And therefore she not been found guilty of a crime. Although we don't know whether she regularly used that kind of whipping treatment in her training programs. There is no suggestion that she did but the fact that she was filmed doing it might arguably indicate that she has used the method before.

What did Charlotte Dujardin do to force her to withdraw from the Olympics? - click this for her full story.

But set against that bleak picture for Charlotte Dujardin, we have the story of Steven van de Veld, a convicted child rapist who was convicted of raping a British 12-year-old girl in 2016. He was subsequently tried and convicted and has been punished according to the law. And he's allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics. The IOC is facing calls for an investigation into how a convicted child rapist has been allowed to compete at these games.

There is growing outrage at the presence of Steven van de Velde in the volleyball competition. Some senior people believe that it is irresponsible of the authorities to allow him there. It sends the wrong signal to the world at large. And there's an argument that even though he has served his sentence and been punished he should not be allowed to compete because the Olympic Games is about creating a harmonious environment. It's about promoting high standards. It's about excellence in sport and in general behaviour. These are top athletes who are influencers.

Many of them who are awarded gold medals will be strong influencers in the future of young people in particular and this underscores the need for them to be of good character.

There is an argument for banning Van de Velde from the Olympics and if that had happened it would put him in line with the ban of Charlotte Dujardin. It would make more sense. At the moment there seems to be a high degree of inequality between these two athletes and the application of different standards.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.