10,500 athletes compete across 32 sports in 329 medal events in the Paris Olympics. They all share one golden dream.
Winning athletes often bite their gold medals on the podium as a celebration tradition, which originated as a way to check coin purity but has now become iconic.
Despite their color, Olympic gold medals contain a small percentage of gold combined with other metals.
The gold medals consist of 523 grams of silver coated with 6 grams of gold, valued at approximately $950. Pure gold medals would be worth $41,161.50. Silver medals weigh 525 grams and are made of pure silver, valued around $486, and bronze medals weigh 455 grams and are composed of copper, tin, and zinc, valued at approximately $13.
The design of Olympic medals is unique to each host city. The Paris 2024 Olympic medals include an iron piece from the Eiffel Tower refined in eastern France. They were designed by French jewelry house Chaumet. The reverse side tells the story of the Games in Greece and Paris. The Paralympic medals feature a graphic representation of the Eiffel Tower.
The value of Olympic medals is expected to increase in future Olympics due to rising commodity prices. While the monetary value of a gold medal is based on its gold and metal content, its sentimental value is considered priceless to most Olympians.
Olympic medals have sold for thousands or even millions of dollars at auctions, with Jesse Owens' 1936 gold medal selling for $1.46 million and Leuris Pupo's 2012 gold medal earning $73,200.
Sources: Sporting News, InStyle, Forbes, Oxford Economics.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
