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Nyjah Huston praises the quality of his Olympic bronze medal

TU.S. team skateboarder Nyjah Huston, who won a bronze medal at the July 29 Olympics, posted a video to his Instagram story on the evening of August 8, suggesting that the quality of Olympic medals is not as high as some might expect.

“Okay, so these Olympic medals look great when they’re brand new, but after leaving them on my skin for a while with a little sweat and then letting my friends wear them over the weekend, apparently they’re not as high quality as you’d think,” he said before showing viewers a close-up of the medal.

“I mean, look at the thing. It looks rough. Even the front. It’s starting to chip a little bit. So, yeah, I don’t know, with Olympic medals, maybe you have to step up the quality a little bit.”

Parts of the medal appeared to look rusted and dull, especially in sunlight. The reverse of the medal, which features an image of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, looked particularly worn and it looked as if parts of the surface plating had chipped off.

One of Huston’s followers jokingly responded to the story, saying, “Looks like you won this thing in 1982, buddy.”

Olympic medals are made of different materials depending on the type of medal. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, gold medals were mostly made of pure silver with a 6-gram gold plating. Silver medals were made of pure silver, while bronze medals were made of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

For the medals of this year’s Olympic Games, the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission has decided that the medals should contain an original piece of iron from the Eiffel Tower.

TIME has reached out to the Organizing Committee of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games for further comment.

By Olivia

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