How the tiara was the final word Olympic accent for medal winners
While a hexagon of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by a metallic hue of either gold, silver or bronze remains the ultimate prize at Paris 2024, there’s another accessory that’s made its way on to the track at the Stade de France.
By the time Katarina Johnson-Thompson had got her hands on silver on Friday night, it had already become a given that the Team GB star would also be handed a tiara or crown to wear ahead of a lap of honour.
The track and field trend for regal headwear has been seen multiple times at the Games in recent weeks, with Keely Hodgkinson donning a gold crown after the middle distance runner grabbed gold for Great Britain earlier in the week.
And when US hurdles star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone defended her gold medal from the 2021 Olympic Games on Thursday, she revealed her sister-in-law had pre-planned that she should be given the headwear if she proved victorious.
A medal and a tiara please: KJ-T donned a glittering headpiece after coming second in the heptathlon on Friday night at the Stade de France
Off to the Olympic ball: the heptathlete posed for photos at the event’s end wearing an ornate tiara, given to her by a member of the public
Hodgkinson cruised to victory in the women’s 800m final on Monday night – and was promptly presented with a plastic gold crown to mark her victory
US track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone revealed after her 400metres hurdles victory that her sister-in-law had been planning to ‘crown’ her with a tiara for months before the Games
Queen of the track: McLaughlin-Levrone was anointed by her sister-in-law following her stunning victory on Thursday in the hurdles
Sure enough, the New Jersey native came home in a time of 50.37 seconds – breaking the world record that she had just set earlier this summer at US Olympic Trials in Oregon.
After the race ended, McLaughlin-Levrone was hugged by her friends and family and a tiara was promptly placed on her head as she became queen of the track for the night.
She explained afterwards why she chose to wear it, telling journalists her sister-in-law had brought it to the Stade de France saying: ‘She told me months ago she would bring it, and it just was a really cute, fun thing. She was like, “I’m going to crown you.”‘
McLaughlin-Levrone, 25, sported the crown, but then, appearing to want some photos without it, took it off her head.
And British 800 metres star Keely Hodgkinson also looked a tad bashful when she was presented with a gold crown following her victory on the track earlier this week.
The runner didn’t quite wear the crown, but did tip it close to her head for snaps. And the resulting image of her with it is now set to become a piece of art in itself, after artist Ben Mosley got to work on creating a portrait of the iconic moment using a photograph taken by Mail Sport’s Andy Hooper.
For an interpretation of the victorious image from the front page of Tuesday’s Daily Mail, Mosley used acrylic paint on gold leaf worth thousands of pounds per kilo.
Britian’s new queen of the track Keely Hodgkinson stopped by at Team GB’s HQ in the Bois de Boulogne district of Paris to check on artist Ben Mosley’s latest storyboard
‘Wow! Is that really gold?’ said Hodgkinson, as she locked her eyes on the storyboard that is being worked on every day at Team GB’s HQ in the Bois de Boulogne district of Paris.
She signed the masterpiece, before telling Mail Sport about her own artistic skills. ‘I was good at art at school, actually,’ said Hodgkinson. ‘I can draw. If there’s something in front of me, I can copy it quite well and make it look realistic.’
