This photograph shows the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Sept. 6, 2024. THIBAUD MORITZ/AFP via Getty Images

The descendants of the Eiffel Tower's designer say they will fight to stop the Olympic rings being left on the tower, as the mayor of Paris plans.

The family of the legendary engineer Gustave Eiffel say they "oppose any alteration that negatively impacts respect for the work" of their ancestor, adding they had already consulted lawyers about blocking the change.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo plans to keep the massive multicolored rings that were attached to the "Dame de Fer" ("Iron Lady") for the Paris Olympics until at least 2028, when the next Games will be held in Los Angeles.

But the descendants argue that the symbol is "colorful, large in size, placed on the main avenue of approach to the tower (and) creates a strong imbalance" in the tower's shape, "substantially modifying the very pure forms of the monument."

Keeping the rings in place would go against "the neutrality and meaning acquired over the years by the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of the city of Paris and even all of France across the world," their family association, AGDE, said in a statement Sunday.

They suggest that the rings stay in place only until "the end of 2024, which marks the end of the Olympic year."

Completed in 1889 for Paris' Universal Exhibition and originally intended to stand for only 20 years, the 1,082-foot Eiffel Tower is owned by the city of Paris.

It's the world's most visited monument according to its website, attracting around seven million people every year — around three-quarters of them from abroad.

Among other things Eiffel designed, the website says, is the metallic structure of the Statue of Liberty.


The Olympic rings are displayed on the Eiffel Tower at night between the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris on August 19, 2024. Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Source