Since the end of the Olympics, medal-winning athletes have complained about the deterioration of the latter.
During the summer of 2024, athletes made France and their respective countries vibrate by winning medals. But quickly, the controversies grew with images of heavily damaged medals just a few days after the end of the Olympic events.
As early as August 2, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston posted his bronze award on social networks and launched hostilities by creating a bad buzz. There we saw a medal that looked like it had lived 100 years in a cave because the color had faded and we could just see cracks. The French Maxime Grousset and Yoann Ndoye Brouard were also victims of this problem.
In an investigation by the Letterwe discover that the Paris mint was aware of the problem, it has even been fighting a varnish problem for 15 months. According to media reports, 100 defective medals have already been returned to the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Monnaie de Paris would have encountered this problem for the first time with the mobile giant Huawei. As the Letter explains once again, the group regularly orders long service medals, which it distributes to its most deserving employees. In October 2023, a batch of more than 12,000 defective medals with the same cracking phenomenon would have been returned.
For certain employees, these would be the consequences of the management of CEO Marc Schwartz, placing the artisanal structure of medals under large industrial management, alongside the Pessac factory (Gironde), specializing in large volumes of medal parts. cash.
The cause of these flaking varnishes would be linked to insufficient anticipation of a regulatory change by management. A toxic component of the varnish manufactured, chromium trioxide, was banned and the new choice of product was obviously not the right one, due to lack of time and studies.
Consequences: the Olympic medals will be replaced “in the coming weeks” explains the OCOG. But it will be expensive because beyond this replacement, the CEO has decided to part ways with three executives, Jacky Frehel (industrial director), Éric Matte, (the production director of the Paris site) and Hélène Juton (quality manager). , health, safety and environment). Contract breaches which will certainly not be done without putting your hand in your pocket.