Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Torch;
Credit: ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal (headquartered in Luxembourg), Paris 2024 and the designer Mathieu Lehanneur unveiled the design of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Torch, produced by ArcelorMittal from its steel with reduced carbon footprint.
ArcelorMittal will also manufacture the mini-cauldrons and the “Spectaculars”, the large Olympic rings and Paralympic agitos to be installed in Paris.
ArcelorMittal is mobilising its Global R&D department and three of its French sites to represent the expertise of its workforce to manufacture the torch for the Paris 2024 Games. These sites have been selected for their ability to produce steel with a reduced carbon footprint that meets the design requirements of the torch.
At Châteauneuf, ArcelorMittal is casting 100% recycled steel from scrap steel. This chosen route produces steel with a reduced carbon footprint. The steel is then rolled at Florange, on lines which are usually used for the most demanding products in the automotive and food packaging industries. Finally, the ArcelorMittal site at Woippy will cut the steel sheet into blanks ready for shaping.
The final two stages of production will be carried out by ArcelorMittal's partners, a goldsmith based in Normandy to ensure the shaping of the sheets in their factory in Vire to form the top and bottom parts of the torch and a last industrial group who will finally apply a high-tech coating to all the steel parts, giving the torch its characteristic appearance and colour.
Once these operations are completed, the torch’s steel body is finished. ArcelorMittal will then assemble the body to include the burner and other various parts, particularly those that ensure the torch's safety of use: in total, there are ten main components to be assembled with meticulous care.
Aditya Mittal, ArcelorMittal CEO, said: “It's a privilege and a great responsibility for ArcelorMittal to manufacture the Torches – such an iconic symbol of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – for Paris 2024. ArcelorMittal's teams are mobilising all their expertise to produce high-quality steel with a reduced carbon footprint, enabling us to create a torch as beautiful as Mathieu Lehanneur imagined, and as sustainable as we want it to be. I am delighted with this superb achievement and congratulate all the ArcelorMittal teams working on this fantastic project.”
Nicola Davidson, Vice President, Sustainable Development and Corporate Communications, ArcelorMittal, commented: “Steel is an extremely versatile material, exemplified by this beautiful torch design by Mathieu Lehanneur for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is also a material that is vital for a net-zero economy. At ArcelorMittal we are working hard to reduce our own carbon footprint to achieve net-zero by 2050. We are delighted to have the opportunity to contribute some of our reduced carbon footprint steel to the Paris 2024 Games, which have the admirable ambition of halving the carbon footprint of previous games.”
Eric Niedziela, Chairman of ArcelorMittal France and Vice President Climate Action for ArcelorMittal Europe, added: “On behalf of all our employees in France, I want to say how proud we are to be entrusted with the production of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Torch. We are demonstrating ArcelorMittal’s capacity to manufacture the torch, the mini-cauldrons and the Spectaculars in our steel with a reduced carbon footprint. It’s also a testimony of the connection we feel between Paris 2024 values and ours, especially diversity and inclusion.”
