ArcelorMittal Involved in Olympic Rings Production for Paris Summer Games 2024

ArcelorMittal has announced it made the Olympic rings “Spectacular” from its XCarb® recycled and renewably produced steel, which has a reduced carbon footprint compared with steel produced using primary production methods.

Paris 2024 should thereby achieve its ambition of significantly reducing carbon emissions compared to previous Olympic Games.

The manufacturing process began at ArcelorMittal’s Châteauneuf and Le Creusot plants, where scrap steel was melted and pre-rolled, effectually giving that steel another life. The steel was then rolled at ArcelorMittal Dunkerque. Steel products were then delivered to a workshop near Épinal in the Vosges region, where steel plates were cut, bent, welded and then painted according to the necessary colour specifications, ArcelorMittal confirmed.

With a length of 29 metres and a height of fifteen metres, the interlaced rings were raised to a height of fifteen metres, testing the crane process that will be used to hoist the Spectacular into position on the Eiffel Tower. The complex lighting scheme for the Spectacular, which enables them to appear in their five colours during the day and in bright white in the evening and at night, was then successfully tested, at a private industrial location in eastern France.

ArcelorMittal is also responsible for the manufacture of the Olympic and Paralympic torches for Paris 2024, as well as the Torch Relay cauldron and the Heart of the Torch presented to each of the 11,000 Torch Bearers, and the yet-to-be-unveiled Paralympic Agitos Spectacular.

The Spectaculars are a doubly complex structural challenge given that they will appear against the background of Paris’ most famous landmarks. To secure the installation of the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, and the Paralympic Agitos on another famous landmark, ArcelorMittal’s team of engineers carried out static and dynamic analyses including numerous calculation and assembly simulations, to guarantee the resistance and safety of the landmarks while offering spectators an extraordinary visual experience, ArcelorMittal noted.

Aditya Mittal, ArcelorMittal’s CEO, commented: “I am delighted that ArcelorMittal has been able to support the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, which will be the most sustainable ever. We are playing our part in that by using low-carbon emissions steel for the Olympic and Paralympic torches, the Olympic rings Spectacular and the Paralympic Agitos Spectacular. The testing of the Olympic rings Spectacular has gone really well and so now we’re looking forward to showing the world what can be achieved with steel this summer.”