Team USA Olympic skateboarder Nyjah Huston may have been wearing his bronze medal a little too much.
On Thursday, Aug. 8, the athlete, 29, showed off the medal he won in the men’s street skateboarding final on July 29 at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and it’s looking a little worse for wear.
“Alright, so these Olympic medals look great when they are brand new,” Huston shared in an Instagram Stories clip.
“But after letting it sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and then letting my friends wear it over the weekend, they are apparently not as high quality as you would think,” he added, turning the camera to show off the accolade.
“I mean look at that thing, it’s looking rough. Even the front is starting to chip off a little,” the Olympian continued, turning the medal round so fans could see a different angle.
“So I don’t know … Olympic medals, you gotta maybe step up the quality a little bit,” he said.
In a further post, Huston shared a shot of the medal in front of a picturesque background, writing, “Medal looking like it went to war and back,” adding a raised eyebrow and crying with laughter emoji.
Huston then posted another photo of himself shirtless while wearing the same baseball cap, writing, “I guess the medals are meant to be in cases. Not meant for the send.”
“Looks like ya won that thing in 1982 mate,” one person replied, with Huston sharing the response on his Instagram Stories.
In response, a Paris 2024 spokesperson told PEOPLE they were “aware of a social media report from an athlete whose medal is showing damage a few days after it was awarded.”
“Paris 2024 is working closely with the Monnaie de Paris, the institution tasked with the production and quality control of the medals, and together with the National Olympic Committee of the athlete concerned, in order to appraise the medal to understand the circumstances and cause of the damage,” the organizers added in a release.
“The medals are the most coveted objects of the Games and the most precious for the athletes. Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals.”
Huston and Team USA’s Jagger Eaton both flirted with first place in the men’s street skateboarding finals, but ultimately lost out on the gold medal to Japan’s reigning champion Yuto Horigome.
After his win, Huston posed proudly in multiple images that he shared among a carousel of photos on Instagram, but he admitted it was “tough” having “a good shot at the win and not pulling through.”
“Since I got home it’s taking everything in me to get out of bed and start living again. I didn’t go into Paris with expectations. Just wanted to go out there, land some tricks and enjoy the moment,” he wrote in a lengthy caption.
“In that moment I wanted to bring home that gold for us so bad. More then anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. It felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think that’s the part that really makes it hard to let go of,” Huston wrote, adding that he knows he has “so much in life to be happy and thankful for.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.
