Nyjah Huston won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Paris. However, the 29-year-old California-born skateboarding legend revealed that the hardware is quickly deteriorating in quality.
The International Olympic Committee is on the case!
Huston, who finished seventh in Tokyo, was extremely close to a first-place finish in France. He actually held the lead through the first two rounds of the nail-biting skateboard street final last Monday, July 29. Unfortunately, fellow American Jagger Eaton overtook him in the final round and Japan’s Yuto Horigome jumped in front of them both at the last second.
Even though Huston was bummed to miss out on gold, he was impressed with the bronze medal.
Even though Huston took third place 11 days ago, he decided to stay in the City of Lights through the Closing Ceremonies at the end of Week 2. His medal has been around his neck from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep.
Apparently that’s an issue…
Huston revealed the rapidly deteriorating quality of his once-impressive medal on Instagram. It doesn’t look as shiny as it was last week and it’s already starting to chip.
#skateboarding
— Surto Olímpico (@SurtoOlimpico) August 8, 2024
Bronze no street, o estadunidense Nyjah Huston reclamou que a sua medalha olímpica já está se desgastando #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/nVty0ZhDfB
The back of his bronze medal looks especially rough. Almost like an old penny.
Huston shared a comment from one of his followers that joked about how it “looks like he won that thing in 1982” which is, well, not wrong! It is unclear if gold and silver medals have the same issue.
Monnaie de Paris was in charge of this year’s medals. The Olympic committee is “aware of a social media report from an athlete whose medal is showing damage a few days after it was awarded” and is trying to figure out what went wrong. Anyone who sees his or her medal deteriorate will get a new one.
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.
The medals are the most coveted objects of the Games and the most precious for the athletes. Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals.
— Paris 2024 Organizers
If we’re being honest, the medal actually looks way cooler with some age on it, but these athletes expect a shiny medal and Huston’s is not shiny. Good on the Olympics for at least making it right.