People are shocked at incredible thing London 2012 Olympic rings are now used for

If the French want any inspo on what to do with those massive Olympic rings once the games come to end, they might want to take notes from London.

The 2024 Olympic Games come to an end a week on Sunday (11 August) and will be followed by the Paralympics.

After that the athletic fever which has gripped the French capital will be released and the city of Paris will be left with a whole load of stadiums and infrastructure that it won't have much use for.

Some of the stadiums and structures will persist for local use and the hosting of events but other Olympic venues will either be dismantled or reduced in size.

Then, of course, there's what happens to all the Olympic paraphernalia including those honking massive metal rings.

In this instance the French might want to take a bit of guidance from London, which demonstrated how to re-use the Olympic rings in fine style.

In the 18 months before the games there were Olympic rings up in London's St Pancras International station and of course they came down after the whole thing was over.

So what do you do with a bunch of giant metal rings?

Obviously the answer is that you chop them up into pieces and put them to work as benches in the station for people to park their posteriors upon.

That's genuinely what happened to the St Pancras Olympic rings as it was something that could keep them in the station without looking like the place couldn't be bothered to take them down and accept that the big moment was long gone.

Some people learning this have ended up being quite surprised, saying they 'didn't know' they'd actually sat on the dismembered remains of the Olympic rings.

On the other hand, some people really know they've had their bum perched on an Olympic ring and said the benches are 'super uncomfortable' and not designed to be 'cushy under the tushy'.

Are these benches at St Pancras station the remnants of the #London2012 Olympic rings? pic.twitter.com/n33mJ9CV

— Chris Constantine (@chriscon) February 11, 2013

Alright, so they may be a tad uncomfortable to sit on but to anyone who has had to stand up for long periods of time at a train station will know that even the hardest benches provide some blessed relief.

However, according to Londonist (presumably the final Pokémon evolution of a Londoner) the rings which proudly hung from Tower Bridge met a less famous fate as they were instead sliced up and recycled.

Over here in the UK a more permanent tribute to Team GB's gold medal winners at London 2012 were erected, as postboxes in the home towns of medal winners were painted gold in celebration.

This change became so popular that was made permanent, so if you ever see a gold postbox in the UK you'll know you're in the home of someone who won Olympic gold.