The Eiffel Tower might keep its Olympic rings post-Games

 

For the Summer 2024 Olympics, Paris adorned its iconic Eiffel Tower with a massive display of the five Olympic rings, elegantly mounted on the tower’s iron lattice. Originally intended to remain only for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, many citizens expected the sign to be removed once the events concluded. However, the city’s mayor Anne Hidalgo has other plans. In an official statement, Paris City Hall announced its intention to keep the 2024 Olympic rings as a permanent feature of the Eiffel Tower. This decision has faced opposition from the descendants of Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s original engineer.

paris mayor's plan to permanently keep olympic rings on eiffel tower faces sharp criticism
image courtesy of Paris 2024

 

 

Gustave Eiffel’s Descendants Reject Paris mayor’s decision

 

In an official statement, the Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (ADGE) strongly opposes the Paris Mayor’s plan to permanently keep the Olympic rings on the iconic landmark. ‘Informed by the press about the desire of the Mayor of Paris to permanently maintain the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, the Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (ADGE) wishes to express its lack of understanding and to voice its unfavorable opinion,’ the announcements reads. 

 

‘While we, like millions of French citizens and people around the world, were delighted to see the Eiffel Tower bear the Olympic rings during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, we do not believe it is appropriate for the Eiffel Tower— which has become, since its construction 135 years ago, the symbol of Paris and by extension of France itself around the world—to permanently bear the symbol of an external organization, regardless of its prestige,’ the French association continues. 

 

The statement ends by emphasizing that the Olympic Games move to different countries every four years, asserting that there is no justification for the Eiffel Tower to keep displaying the rings after the Paris Games; instead, the tower’s façade should continue to be used temporarily to spotlight important causes, as it has done in the past, such as displaying the colors of Europe during the French presidency of the Council of the European Union or the colors of Ukraine to show support for the nation following the onset of the Russian invasion.

 

paris mayor's plan to permanently keep olympic rings on eiffel tower faces sharp criticism
image courtesy of Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (ADGE)