Roje Stona shows his gold medal gained within the Males’s discus throw on the Paris Olympic Video games final August. (Photograph: Naphtali Junior)Naphtali Junior
Though no Jamaican athlete has reported any subject with the state of the medals gained on the Paris Video games final yr, Jamaica Olympic Affiliation President Christopher Samuda says he’s assured the organisers of the Olympic Video games in Los Angeles in 2028 and past will make sure the medals handed out shall be of the very best quality.
This comes following the Paris 2024 organisers saying the French mint, the Monnaie de Paris, will substitute any broken medals from final yr’s Olympic and Paralympic Video games following a bunch of complaints from athletes throughout a number of disciplines.
The medals had been designed by the French luxurious jewelry and watch model Chaumet, with manufacturing carried out by the French mint. They embrace preserved items of iron from the unique Eiffel Tower, which had been put into storage after renovation work within the twentieth century.
Nonetheless, athletes, together with American skateboarder Nyjah Houston, British diver Yasmin Harper, and French Swimmers Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Clément Secchim took to social media to indicate the deteriorating state of their medals.
On Friday, the French mint mentioned it obtained 220 requests for medals to get replaced. It says the replacements shall be equivalent to the unique however a protecting varnish shall be added to extend their sturdiness.
The Jamaica Observer understands that none of Jamaica’s six medallists — Roje Stona, Shanieka Ricketts, Kishane Thompson, Rajindra Campbell, Wayne Pinnock, and Rasheed Broadbell — have reported points with their medals.
Whereas calling the incident unlucky, Samuda says future Olympic Video games organisers will must be proactive to stop a recurrence.
“Paris will bemoan the truth that its medals now have a doubtful place in historical past,” he informed the Observer. “Town definitely had superb intentions, however the unimaginable has occurred, and now the medals must be returned to the Monnaie de Paris mint.
“Successors in title to the Video games will take notice and do their danger assessments because the aspirations and supreme euphoria of podium candidates shouldn’t be attenuated as they would like to position their minted actual property within the cupboard and never have triggered to return them to the market.”
Samuda, although, says he’s hoping athletes look previous the tangibility of their accomplishment.
“I perceive the athletes’ nervousness and disappointment, however they have to cherish the priceless worth of their achievement and second in sporting historical past, which, not like imperfect medals, are irreplaceable,” he mentioned.
The 220 medals to get replaced symbolize 4 per cent of the 5,084 awarded on the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
The French mint mentioned in a press launch on Friday that it “has changed a few of them and is continuous its substitute operation on the request of the athletes”, and it “had finished every little thing attainable, from August 2024, to make sure the substitute of the medals involved”.
The Paris 2024 medals designed by the French luxurious jewelry and watch model Chaumet.(Photograph: AFP)
Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica shows the ladies’s triple leap silver medal throughout a presentation ceremony of the Olympic Video games on the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on August 4, 2024.
Jamaica Olympic Affiliation President Christopher Samuda.
