They carry the weight of a long and painful history, and they are gold-plated rather than gold, which is itself a kind of metaphor that the story did not ask for but received anyway.

The men who were elevated in Thorpe’s place in 1913 have now been returned to their actual finishing positions.

Their families endorsed the change, because the families, like the athletes themselves, had always known the result was wrong.

The IOC described what happened in 2022 as an exceptional and unique situation, addressed through the fair play of the concerned committees and families.

That framing is not inaccurate.