More than 100 Olympic athletes 'return medals' after the Paris Games

It has been just five months since the final event of the Paris 2024 Games and over 100 "disgruntled" athletes have already returned their Olympic medals, according to reports.

One of the big talking points from last summer's Games was the noticeable deterioration of some of the medals.

Team USA skateboarder Nyjah Huston posted a picture of his medal, just days after recording a score of 93.37 to earn Olympic bronze in what was a competitive final in the French capital.

Huston, who is widely considered to be one of the world's best after winning 12 gold medals at the X Games, proceeded to celebrate his third-place finish.

But after letting the medal sit on his skin – not to mention giving it to his friends – the 30-year-old noticed it was starting to look worse for wear, with the bronze colour chipping away from several areas.

"Alright, so these Olympic medals look great when they're brand new," Huston said. "But after letting it sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and letting my friends wear it over the weekend..."

Huston proceeded to flip the camera to his medal. "They're apparently not as high quality as you'd think," he continued before zooming in. "It's looking rough."

It turns out he wasn't the only athlete to notice such a deterioration in his medal.

Danish badminton player Viktor Axelsen showed the gold medal he won at Paris 2024 and compared it to the condition of the gold he'd won at Tokyo 2020, with the older medal looking far shinier.

Rebeca Andrade, who beat Simone Biles to win gold in the floor final, said she actively avoided wearing her medals.

"They [the medals] are knocking against each other and are scratching," she said. "I'm getting sad. And I don't want to be sad. So I'm not going to wear them around my neck anymore."

Nyjah posted a video of the medal shortly after winning Bronze in Paris. Image credit: Instagram/nyjah

Five months on and a report from French publication La Lettre has claimed that over 100 athletes have returned their medals, which were produced by the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) and contained a piece of the Eiffel Tower.

The French mint told The Associated Press that it is replacing a number of medals from the 2024 Paris Games and Paralympics after athletes complained that they have already deteriorated.

In total, the French mint produced 5,084 medals for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"The Monnaie de Paris has taken the issue of damaged medals very seriously since the first exchange requests in August, and has mobilized its internal teams," the French mint said. "Since then, the company has modified and optimized its relative varnishing process. The Monnaie de Paris will replace all damaged medals at the athletes' request during the first quarter of 2025."

Rebeca Andrade admitted she actively avoided wearing her medal. Image credit: Getty

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have also confirmed that damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals.