Since the Paris Olympics kicked off, a pair of tiny orange Dutch clogs, the unofficial pin of the Netherlands team, has become a coveted currency among the athletes.
Nearly an inch long and dangling from a butterfly clutch, the pin exchanged hands between Yara ten Holte, a Dutch handball player, and Ilona Maher, the U.S. women’s rugby star, who gleefully flaunted her prize on TikTok.
“One thing about the Olympic Village is, trading pins is serious business,” Ms. Maher said last week in a post that was viewed more than 2.7 million times.
“We don’t mess around trading pins, OK?”Trading in pins — those tiny, shiny emblems made by sports delegations, federations, countries and the media outlets covering them — is a longstanding tradition at the Olympics.
But the activity was subdued during the pandemic, as restrictions at the Summer Games in Tokyo and the Winter Games in Beijing prevented athletes, fans and pin collectors from getting anywhere near one another.
Persons:
Ilona Maher, Ms, Maher
Organizations:
Paris Olympics, Summer, Winter Games
Locations:
Netherlands, Dutch, U.S, Tokyo, Beijing