Why do gold medalists bite their medals?
The Olympics will be coming to an end soon and we can't help but notice how the winners bite their medals.
It’s been done for years: you receive your Olympic gold medal and naturally, you bite it.
This strange tradition appears to have begun in 1896, at the first modern Olympic games. In those days, the gold medals were really made of gold, and because it is a fairly soft metal, athletes could leave bite marks on their medals thus confirming that they were real gold. In 1912, the practice of using real gold came to an end, mainly because of the cost, and today, the gold medals are only 1,34 per cent real gold.
So why then are athletes still taking a bite of their momentous achievement?
Because it’s a tradition for many Olympic athletes, and besides, it has also become an iconic shot for photographers, and the images are believed to be worth a pretty penny!
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