Only a few triathletes did take home an Olympic medal in Paris, but the athletes who did (in general, not only triathletes, ed.) recently returned them en masse to the organization. Reason: the medals got damaged or rusted far too quickly and looked particularly bad. Three directors of the company that made the medals – Monnaie de Paris – were fired.
In total, over a hundred medals were returned. Incidentally, complaints about the quality of the medals were already being made during the Paris Olympics and the first complaints from athletes were trickling in, but this has thus only worsened in recent months.
French media report that a ban on a toxic ingredient in the medal came just before the Games. A new ingredient was then hastily chosen to allow the medals to still be manufactured, but that ingredient was allegedly not tested well enough. Duped athletes will of course receive a new medal.
