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| From left are the silver, gold and bronze medals used at the Tokyo Olympics. EPA-Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
Even though Olympic champions may win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, they actually appear to be bringing home silver medals, due to the hard-won hardware’s composition.
According to Compound Interest, a science communication website that examines chemical compounds, the gold medals awarded at the ongoing Tokyo Games are made from gold-plated pure silver, with only 1.2 percent gold ― or six grams ― in the 556-gram medals.
The 550-gram silver medals are made from pure silver, while the bronze medals are made of an alloy of 95-percent cooper and five-percent zinc, which weighs 450 grams.
Olympic gold medals are required to be made from at least 92.5 percent silver and must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold, as in the Tokyo awards.
According to CNN, the estimated price of the latest gold medal is some $800 (920,000 won), while the silver is worth $450 and the bronze $5.
The price tag of this year’s gold medal is $250 higher than that of a gold medal handed out at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which was worth $550, due to inflation in the prices of those metals. In fact, PyeongChang’s gold had 30 grams more silver.
In Olympic history, in only three Games ― 1904, 1908 and 1912 ― were athletes awarded solid gold medals. Since the two world wars, gold-plated medals have been widely used.
CNN also reported that a winner’s medal from the 1896 Athens Olympics sold for $180,000 at auction, while Cuban shooter Leuris Pupo’s gold medal from the London Olympics fetched $73,200.
One of U.S. track and field athlete Jesse Owens’ four gold medals earned at the 1936 Berlin Olympics sold for $1.47 million in 2013.
According to the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, this year, each medal was produced from metals extracted from recycled consumer electronics.
Gold medalists take home de facto silver medals
Source: Buhay Kapa PH
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