Paris Wants to Keep the Eiffel Tower Olympic Rings — But It Depends on Who Owns the Eiffel Tower
Although the summer 2024 Paris Olympics are over, the drama surrounding them still hasn’t stopped. The city recently announced that it plans to keep the Olympic Rings on the Eiffel Tower. However, much like everything else that happened during the 2024 Games, there has been some pushback. Keep reading to learn more.
The story behind the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower
The rings were added to the Parisian landmark to symbolize the city of love hosting the Games. The plan was to remove them after the Olympics had wrapped up, but now Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo says they will stay until 2028.
“The French have fallen in love with Paris again,” she explained. “I want this festive spirit to remain.”
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But not everyone is happy about it. The rings are 95 feet wide and 43 feet in height and reportedly cause a “strong imbalance” and “substantially modify the very pure forms of the monument as designed by Gustave Eiffel and his teams more than 135 years ago,” according to a statement made by The Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (ADGE) — the Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World Fair.
The association also claims that keeping the rings on the tower goes against "the neutrality and meaning acquired over the years by the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of the city of Paris and even all of France across the world."
“The members of the ADGE were both happy and proud to see the Olympic rings displayed on the Eiffel Tower during the games; it does not seem appropriate to keep them there afterward. The Eiffel Tower, a historical symbol of Paris and France, should not be permanently associated with an external organization, no matter how prestigious it may be.”
Who owns the Eiffel Tower?
The Eiffel Tower currently belongs to the City of Paris but is managed by a development company called La Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel—and then of course ADGE is on the sidelines as a strong voice dedicated to protecting the legacy of Eiffel himself
In opposition to the mayor, the engineer's great-great-granddaughter, Myriam Larnaudie-Eiffel, says her family will not allow the rings to stay up for the proposed four more years “While the rings were celebrated on the Eiffel Tower during the Games because the iconic monument was a central figure in the event, the rings were never part of its original design. The family will only allow the rings to remain until the end of this Olympic year.”
However, since the family doesn't actually own the tower, the choice to keep the rings where they are is not up to them, with Hidalgo saying, “The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the [International Olympic Committee]. So yes, they will stay on the Eiffel Tower.”
It is important to note, though, that the Eiffel Tower itself was supposed to only stand for 20 years after its construction for the 1889 World’s Fair, but the city decided that it could be used for other things like telegraph towers and weather research.
Have other cities left their Olympic rings up?
After the Games have concluded, it is customary for the host city to take down the rings from wherever they chose to display them. However, there is no set rule that says they have to.
In fact, the International Olympic Committee says they “warmly welcome” Paris to keel the rings on The Eiffel Tower as it helps “make the legacy of the sensational Olympic Games Paris 2024 accessible to as many people as possible."
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As of now, the plan is to keep the rings on the tower, but the Association of the Descendants of Gustave Eiffel says they will continue fighting them every step of the way.
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