Athletes, fans and staff collect and trade pins representing countries, sports and more during the Olympic Games At the end of any Olympic Games, the competing athletes are all hoping to leave with one key thing: a medal. But there\u2019s some other take-home accessories that are just as covetable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve been following along as athletes arrive to the Olympic Village in Paris for the 2024 Summer Games, you\u2019ve likely seen chatter about pins and pin trading. The practice is not new \u2014 athletes have long been swapping pins at the Games. \u201cI regret not being on my pin game last Games, so this time I\u2019m really stepping it up with my pin game,\u201d women\u2019s volleyball star Chiaka Ogbogu tells PEOPLE at Ralph Lauren\u2019s Olympics welcome party at Ralph\u2019s Restaurant in Paris on July 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the official Olympics website, pin trading can be traced back to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 1896. At the time, countries wore badges made of cardboard that were initially intended to denote the judges and Olympic officials. Greek athletes who were first-place finishers in the 1896 Olympic trials were specifically given cloth pins with the Greek national emblem, according to the International Association of Olympic Collectors (AICO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things evolved from there, with the pin production eventually becoming a fundraising means for the different Olympic delegations. Now, the athletes, fans and staff all get in on the pin fun. In fact, there\u2019s even a world Olympic pin collectors club called Olympin. According to the group\u2019s website, Olympin \u201cis a nonprofit group reaching some 500 members in over 30 countries.\u201d It was formed after the Lake Placid Winter Games in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Countries make official pins, as do the individual sports teams within the delegations. Brands also create and distribute pins, as does the host country \u2014 this time, Paris. Some of the offerings for sale in official merchandise locations include a pin shaped like a pigeon, one that resembles a stacked-up hamburger and many incorporating the Paris Olympics mascot, Phryges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have USA skateboarding pins that are actually skateboards, which is really exciting,\u201d Olympic skateboarder Jagger Eaton tells PEOPLE at the same Ralph Lauren event.
The pin trading offers athletes the opportunity to meet other Olympians in the Olympic Village, as well as interact with their teammates in other sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMe and my teammates specifically, we\u2019ve been trying to just explore the village now that we can and get to know people,\u201d Ogbogu says. \u201cThe village has a really cool bar area that\u2019s been really fun to hang out with and just trade pins. I\u2019ve been on my pin game.\u201d (People)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Athletes, fans and staff collect and trade pins representing countries, sports and more during the Olympic Games At the end of any Olympic Games, the competing athletes are all hoping to leave with one key thing: a medal. But there\u2019s some other take-home accessories that are just as covetable. If you\u2019ve been following along as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":435790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infotainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}