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You might have watched runner Keely Hodgkinson ringing a trackside bell after scoring a gold medal for Team GB in the women’s 800m last night.
You’d have seen the same if you were tuning into the men’s record-breaking pole vault or the men’s nanoseconds-close 100m race too ― in fact, it’s been a staple for all gold winners whose events took place in the Stade de France.
We’ve written before about how much medallists actually get paid. But when was this bell introduced, and why do athletes ring it?
And what’s going to happen to the bell after the games are over?
It’s been specially made, but not just for the Olympics
Stade de France, the stadium in which a lot of this years’ track and field events are being held, contains the bell which was designed especially for the Olympics.
Per Eurosport, the first people to ring the now-famous “victory bell” were the French and New Zealand rugby men’s and women’s teams.
The bell is part of the rebuilding of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which endured extensive fire damage in 2019, NBC says.
It’s got the Paris 2024 Olympics logo engraved on it and will be hung in the historic church after the games, so the sound of Olympic wins will ring through the city for years after the athletes have left.
“In a way, Paris 2024 is helping to rebuild Notre-Dame. A part of the Games and the Olympic spirit will remain in Notre-Dame for life,” Pierre-André Lacout, a manager at the Stade de France, told NBC.
Made in Normandy, the bell will eventually sit in one of the recently-destroyed towers of the iconic church.
By the way, only gold medal winners can ring the bell.
When’s the bell going away?
The bell will be removed from the Stade de France after the Paralympic Games are over, Sortir Paris reads.
Speaking to Le Parisien, Paul Bergamo, director of the foundry that made the bronze bell, said, it was “made to last for several centuries, in the spirit of the cathedral builders.”
Notre-Dame’s restoration is aiming to be completed in December of this year. After that point, the Olympic bell will ring out along with the rest of the new, smaller bells…
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