Not often in Olympic historical past has an organization been as ubiquitous as LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuittonthe posh items empire owned by the richest household in France.
As the biggest company sponsor of the Paris Olympics, LVMH was all over the place. His Moët & Chandon champagne was flowing within the VIP suites. The French athletes had been dressed by LVMH’s Berluti trend home. And, opposite to no less than the spirit of the Olympic constitution, Louis Vuitton baggage was thrown out through the opening ceremony and seen by a couple of billion individuals worldwide.
However his most vital function concerned Olympic medalsthat are designed by Chaumet, a luxurious jewellery and watch producer and a part of the LVMH group. Gold, silver and bronze – the most effective athletes would take them residence as a memento of their exploits on the Paris Video games.
Now these medals are falling aside – and LVMH has shut up.
In simply over 100 days for the reason that Olympics closed, greater than 100 athletes have requested for the disintegrating medals to get replaced. Final month, Clement Seki and Johan Ndoye-Brouard, French swimmers, confirmed theirs flaky medalon social media. “Crocodile pores and skin,” wrote Mr. Seki. And simply weeks after the Video games ended, Nick Itkin, a U.S. Olympic fencer, posted a video on Instagram of his bronze medal dropping its luster.
The medals had to get replaced at different Olympic Video games – notably Rio de Janeiro in 2016. However at no earlier Olympics has an organization stamped its model credentials so prominently.
Essentially the most acute situation appears to be the bronze medals, the issues about which the opponents started to sign shortly after receiving them.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee apologized and mentioned it could discover replacements. The Monnaie de Paris, the French mint that produced the medals, has to this point taken accountability, blaming the issue on a technical situation with the lacquer.
And LVMH was completely happy to let the opposite organizations converse. A spokesman for the corporate mentioned that as a result of it didn’t produce the medals and was not accountable for them, LVMH had no remark.
However within the build-up to the Video games and through the occasion itself, LVMH showcased the function of its knowledgeable artisans in making the medals. On the second ground of a membership he created, just some meters from the Elysée Palace, the residence of the French president, designers from Chaumet proudly defined the long-standing undertaking to design the medals in secret. In everybody’s coronary heart was a chunk of the Eiffel Tower.
Chaumet had by no means designed a sports activities medal earlier than, and of the three they had been requested to make, the bronze was essentially the most tough.
“It is essentially the most tough as a result of it is essentially the most delicate,” Philippe Bergamini, considered one of Chaumet’s longest-serving jewellery designers, informed The New York Occasions on the time.
The corporate modified the design a whole bunch of occasions till a particular committee of athletes and Olympic officers reached settlement. The designers then joined forces with the mint, a French establishment that produced cash and different precious objects from the Center Ages.
Every medal took 15 days to finish, from stamping the design to dipping it in gold, bronze and silver after which ending it with a coat of lacquer.
So when an athlete posted pictures of his rusting bronze medal final August, simply weeks after the Video games, the mint launched an inner investigation to “perceive the circumstances and reason behind the harm,” the group mentioned in an announcement.
The mint found that the varnish used to stop oxidation was faulty. The lacquer recipe is a commerce secret, however the coating was weakened after the mint modified it to adjust to current European Union rules banning using chromium trioxide, a poisonous chemical used to stop metallic from rusting, in line with La Lettre. French business newspaper.
A spokeswoman declined to verify the report, however mentioned in an announcement that the mint “has modified the lacquer and optimized its manufacturing course of to make it extra proof against sure makes use of seen on athletes’ medals.”
Confronted with a flood of deteriorating medals, the Worldwide Olympic Committee has vowed to seek out replacements. “Broken medals will likely be systematically changed by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an similar method to the originals,” it mentioned in an announcement.
For LVMH, the Olympics had been a coming-out occasion. It was a significant foray into the game and a second to advertise the corporate in a means it had beforehand prevented, preferring as an alternative to showcase its particular person manufacturers. .
“Clearly as a result of it is the medal, it is tremendous high-profile and everyone’s asking how this occurs and particularly coming from LVMH, whose raison d’etre is high quality and precision,” mentioned Michael Payne, who got here up with the IOC’s authentic advertising technique.
