LVMH’s Olympic medals are no match for the everlasting participation trophies proudly displayed by your parents.
The French luxury juggernaut behind brands like Hennessey and Louis Vuitton that sponsored the 2024 Paris Olympics is answering for the shoddy quality of the medals its jewelry subsidiary Chaumet designed for the games.
Top Olympians have posted pictures of medallions looking like a rusted-over bike that wintered outdoors with over 100 top athletes asking for replacements, according to the New York Times. The International Olympic Committee apologized and promised to honor the replacement requests.
LVMH says “not I”
The medal debacle is a headache for LVMH, which poured $168 million into the Summer Games as part of its foray into high-profile sports sponsorships. But the status symbol purveyor washed its hands of the faux pas, claiming this week that Chaumet merely designed the medals.
The centuries-old mint that manufactured the medals Monnaie de Paris attributed their deterioration to a change in its varnish formula—a step it took to comply with a recent European Union regulation banning the anti-rust chemical chromium trioxide.
Big picture: The rusty taste in the mouths of Olympians who bit into LVMH’s medals hasn’t stopped it from reclaiming its spot as Europe’s largest company yesterday, overtaking the Danish pharma giant that makes Ozempic Novo Nordisk.—SK
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.