Tokyo Olympics finally were finally wrapped up on 8th August, Sunday. This year was particularly great for India as our players won 7 medals in total (1 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze), which is the highest medal tally for our country so far.
One image that we all have come across from the Olympics is the winner standing on the podium, biting their gold medal. So, why do the winners bite their medals? Where did this tradition start from?
To Pose For Photographs
Sorry to disappoint those of you who were expecting a more interesting answer, but this is the era of Instagram. What more could we expect? It was not why this was started, but why this is continued in today’s times.
Turns out, the photographers love this particular pose and they ask the winner to bite the medal for pictures.
“It’s become an obsession with the photographers. I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell. I don’t think it’s something the athletes would probably do on their own,” said David Wallechinsky, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and co-author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics”.
Read More: India: Who Won What At Tokyo Olympics 2021
To Test The Purity Of The Medal
It is believed that sportspersons started the practice of biting their medals to check for their authenticity. During the California Gold Rush in the 1800s, it was used to test if the medal was, in fact, made of gold or not.
Human teeth are harder than pure gold but softer than pyrite (metal that looks like gold). So, if the bite leaves a mark on the medal, it means that it is real. If it is fake, then the tooth would hurt and there would be no tooth mark on the medal.
However, it is not required to carry out the authenticity test nowadays because the medal is anyway not made of pure gold. It mostly consists of silver, plated with pure gold.
Medals Not Edible, Confirms The Olympic Committee
“We just want to officially confirm that the #Tokyo2020 medals are not edible,” informed the official Olympics 2020 committee. “Our medals are made from material recycled from electronic devices donated by the Japanese public. So, you don’t have to bite them… but we know you still will,” it said.
Since the medal is made up of recycled material, it is not really healthy to it in the mouth. But, the tradition continues.
Sources: Washington Post, Indian Express, Tribune India
Image Sources: Google Images
Find The Blogger: @TinaGarg18
This post is tagged under: Olympics, tokyo olympics, Olympics 2020, tokyo olympics 2021, gold medal, Olympic winner, sportspersons, athletes, California gold rush, purity of gold medal, constituent of Olympic medal, why Olympic winners bite medals
Other Recommendations:
Do Our Villagers Need To Achieve Olympic Medals To Acquire Clean Drinking Water?
