Standing on a podium with two other victors next to you at the Olympic Games must be a moment one can’t possibly can’t put into words. And when your name is called and your medal placed around your neck, the obligatory next move is to take a bite out of it… but why?
Drunk on adrenaline and happiness while posing for pictures – the medal has to get a bite – but how and when did this tradition begin?
Some interesting facts about the first Olympic Games hosted in 1986 – instead of real gold, the first place medals were made of silver and second place medals were made of bronze, as were third place. In 1900 winners were awarded with trophies instead of medals. It was only at the 1904 games that medals of solid gold were introduced, but that didn’t last long. World War 1 began not too long after and gold was not readily available.
The decision thereafter was to reduce the amount of gold in the medals to 6 grams which means they are made up of mostly silver and copper.
Because gold is a soft metal, it dents when you bite it – so it became a of way of testing whether the metal is indeed gold or not.
Olympics medals are made of:
Gold: 6 grams of gold plating on pure silver
Silver: 100% pure silver
Bronze: Red brass (95% copper and 5% zinc)
Olympic medals weight:
Gold 556g
Silver 550g
Bronze 450g
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