If you’ve been watching the 2024 Paris Olympics with your Peacock subscription like your life depended on it, then you’ve probably had several questions about the games. Questions like: why don’t I watch more rugby? Why doesn’t the U.S. embrace Team Handball? And above all, just what is in those boxes that all the medalists are being given? We now have an answer thanks to a viral TikTok from a gold medal-winning canoeist.
Medalists are nearly always given something alongside their medals. It’s usually something simple, like flowers, or a stuffed animal of that year’s mascot. But if you’ve watched even one medal ceremony this year, you may have noticed that those on the podium are given a skinny wooden box. Australian gold medalist Jess Fox who went viral at the last Olympics for using a condom to fix her canoe has gone viral again on TikTok by showing off the special poster exclusively designed for the games, and it looks amazing.
@jessfoxcanoe ♬ original sound - Jessica Fox
The poster, according to Town & Country, was designed by French artist Ugo Gattoni. It apparently took him 2000 hours of work. As seen in the TikTok, the poster is a bright and colorful version of Paris which includes all the major landmarks that people know with athletes performing various Olympic disciplines all over the city.
It’s a great poster and one that anybody can get a hold of if you want to buy one. However, it does appear that the gold embossed logo on the medalists' poster is unique to the version they get, so the winners are still getting something that not just anybody can have. It’s fitting – they did just win Olympic medals, after all.
Of course, now I’m thinking about the people who compete in multiple events and have the opportunity to win multiple medals. Simon Biles has been amazing to watch at the Olympics and has won gold medals for both the gymnastics team competition and in the individual all-around. I’m assuming the Olympics aren't keeping track of these things, which presumably means that she now has two posters just like she has two medals.
What are the people with more than one going to do with the extras? Putting one of them on the wall in a nice frame makes sense, maybe next to a shadow box with the medal (You won the Olympics, and it’s more than okay to show off a little!) But what about the others? Do you sell them on eBay? Give them to family members as Christmas presents? Wallpaper you house with them?
If you really like the version of the Olympics poster being given to the athletes, now is the time to make friends with anybody who has won more than one medal this year.
