Washington: The quality of the Olympic medals awarded to athletes at Paris 2024 has come under scrutiny after a Team USA skateboarder claimed the bronze medal he won had deteriorated after just a week.

Nyjah Huston, who came third in the men’s skateboard street, said in a video posted to Instagram that his bronze was already chipped and losing its colour days after winning it.

He said the medal was looking like “it went to war and back” and added that it was “not as high quality as you’d think” as the bronze appeared to have rubbed off.

The Olympic medals handed out in Paris feature a piece of recycled scrap metal from the Eiffel Tower — and more than 5,000 of them have been produced by France’s mint for the Games.

“Alright, so these Olympic medals look great when they’re brand new,’ Huston said in the post to his five million followers. “But after letting it sit on my skin with some sweat for a little bit and letting my friends wear it over the weekend…” he continued, before zooming in on the medal to show                                               its condition.

“They’re apparently not as high quality as you’d think… It’s looking rough… I don’t know, Olympic medals, we gotta step up the quality a little bit.”

While his bronze at Paris was his first medal at the Olympics, the 29-year-old has won skateboarding gold 12 times at the X Games and six times at the World Championships. The American has also won several silver and bronze medals across both competitions.

Meanwhile, Great Britain diver Yasmin Harper also revealed that her Olympic medal has “small bits of tarnishing” on it after skateboarder Nyjah Huston criticised the quality of his bronze.

Harper won Team GB’s first medal of the Games, taking bronze with partner Scarlett Mew Jensen in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard diving final and admitted that her medal has also been affected.