Hardware isn’t the only thing medallists are receiving at the Paris Olympics 2024.
Once they step up on the podium, medal-winning athletes are also presented with a skinny rectangular brown box – but what is inside it?
According to Olympics, the mysterious gift is an official poster for the Games, which was designed by Parisian illustrator Ugo Gattoni.
In an interview with the Olympics several months ago, Mr Gattoni said the illustrations took him four months and 2,000 hours to create.
The poster features Paris’s greatest monuments: from Pont Alexandre III to the Eiffel Tower, the Stade de France, and the Arc de Triomphe.
Other details include a gold medal, the Paris Olympic mascot, and the boats featured at the opening ceremony. New sports making their debut at the Games – including skateboarding and breaking – are also referenced in the illustration.
“I wanted the poster to tell countless things, to be full of symbols. There are many small details, they’re stories within the stories,” Mr Gattoni said.
The posters form part of a tradition that dates back to the Stockholm Games in 1912, with every Organising Committee producing posters that highlight various elements, symbols and values specific to their Games.
Once they step off the podium, athletes are also given another item – a gold, silver or bronze mascot, depending on the colour of the medal.
These plush toys depicting the Phryge – the little Phrygian cap – serving as the mascot for Paris 2024 are made in France, and include a medal-coloured emblem sewn onto their front and the word “Bravo” on their back.
Podium gifts differ during every Olympics Games.
For example, in Tokyo four years ago, athletes received a small bouquet of yellow, green and blue flowers, which were meant to symbolise Japan rising from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011, which left about 20,000 people dead or missing.
The flowers were grown mostly in three prefectures hit particularly hard in that event.
In Athens 2004, medalists received a laurel wreath – an ancient Greek symbol of triumph.
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