Olympic rings temporarily placed on the Jena bridge

The five multi-coloured rings are installed in line with those attached to the Iron Lady on the bridge which connects the Parisian monument to the Trocadéro.

Olympic rings were temporarily installed on Saturday, September 14, on the Pont d’Iéna in Paris, while waiting for those currently adorning the Eiffel Tower to be replaced by a more permanent structure to remain there until 2028, AFP noted.

“The small rings are a nod to the big rings,” declared the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, while unveiling with the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach the five multicoloured rings, hung in the axis of the Iron Lady, on this bridge linking the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadéro.

The current structure, installed in June on the Eiffel Tower, must be removed during the month of September to be replaced by more durable rings. The City of Paris and the IOC are working on the construction of these new rings, just as large but lighter, and adapted to winter conditions. The rings on the Eiffel Tower “will not be able to stay because they are very heavy and we are working on installing rings that would be completely compatible with the structure”explained Anne Hidalgo.

Anne Hidalgo’s plan to keep the Olympic logo on the Eiffel Tower, at least until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, has drawn strong criticism from heritage advocates and descendants of Gustave Eiffel. The latter believe that keeping the rings would undermine the work of their ancestor erected 135 years ago.

The Iron Lady is also not intended to display a “advertising sign”the Olympic rings being a trademark, according to the Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (Adge) which proposes that the rings be “symbolically transmitted” in Los Angeles before the end of 2024.

Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Anne Hidalgo had “was right” not to remove “right away” the rings, but without specifying when he thinks the rings should be removed.