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Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images
Mmm, gold medal ... om nom nom. Team USA chomp on their medals after winning the women's team gymnastics final on July 31. From left to right, we have Mckayla Maroney, Kyla Ross, Alexandra Raisman, Gabrielle Douglas and Jordyn Wieber.
After medal-winning Olympians stand on the platform, receive their medals, and solemnly listen to the gold medal winner’s national anthem, they leave the stage and face an army of photographers. In front of the flashing lights, many winners grab their medals and take a bite.
It takes years of grueling training and competition to nab gold at the Olympics. So why do the winners immediately chomp on their hard-earned prizes?
The simple answer: Because the photographers ask them to, says David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics, via email.
Related photos: Olympians biting their medals
While Olympic historians aren’t sure which athlete started the trend, they believe the athletes nibble their prizes to test the metal. People once bit gold coins try to make an indent; a small tooth mark in a coin assured it consisted of real gold, which is more malleable than counterfeit gold-plated lead coins.
“We know that only in 1912 the gold medals were real gold and that in all later Olympics the gold medals were made from silver with a gilt layer to show it as being gold,” explains Tony Bijkerk, secretary-general of the International Society of Olympic Historians via email. The 2012 medals contain 1.34 percent of gold, making it one of the biggest medals.
Um, how do we break this to you, Team USA? You didn't actually win gold
“Unfortunately, the gold layer sometimes had a tendency to fade over the years. Fanny Blankers-Koen, the heroine of the 1948 Olympics in London, who was a good friend of mine, once told me that she had to have her four gold medals re-gilded two times over the years.” (Blankers-Koen was a 30-year-old mother of two who medaled in running events, helping to prove women could be as athletic as men.)
Even though the medal isn’t solid gold, Bijkerk suspects that Olympians could make a mark in the medal, depending on how hard they bite. And some really sink their teeth into their prizes. At the 2010 Winter Olympics, German luger, David Moeller, who won a silver medal, broke his tooth while mugging for cameras and showing off his bite.
Psychologist Frank Farley believes that medalists bite their medals because, at this point, it’s what winning Olympians do.
“Sports all have their eccentricities,” says Farley, a professor from Temple University in Philadelphia and former president of the American Psychological Association. “If you want to be part of the winning zeitgeist, that winning culture, you participate in that winning practice.”
But he believes that medal biting is more than Olympians simply acting like winners. “It makes your medals yours,” Farley says. “It’s an emotional connection with your accomplishment.”
And even if the Olympians do indent their medals, it makes the prize individual; bite imprints are as unique as the swirls on our digits.
“The concept of the icon, something representing something else, is pretty deep in all of us. In the Olympics, they have a twist on it; it’s like imprinting [yourself] there for all of time.”
Anthony Quintano / NBC News
Ah, the sweet taste of victory! U.S. swimmer Ricky Berens takes a bite of his gold and silver medals on the TODAY set in London.
Related:
- What is with that weird tape Olympians are wearing?
- Give McKayla Maroney a break: Settling for 2nd can be tough
- Chinese weightlifter's hairy mole: Everything you never wanted to know
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I do remember the biting of the coin in the intro to the "Underdog" cartoon.
I thought they were gold covered chocolate coins!
No shoeshine boy aka underdog made real coinage, probably wanted to make sure they weren't chocolate coins.
My son and his teammates would lick each trophy they won! The practice of licking the team trophy began when he was about 9 years old and continued all the way up to his Senior year in High School. The philosophy was to leave behind your DNA for prosperity! It made the trophy "their's" and solidified the team effort in the win! His High School relay team qualified for State his Senior year and each team mate licked the baton used in the race prior to placing it in the school's trophy case! Gross? Maybe. But still kind of cool...
Are we that stupid as Americans that a story like this has to be written? Or maybe it's only NBC news readers?
agreed Sven, son of Olaf, I feel so old :(
Because a photographer asked the athletes to pose with their medals being bitten
Not soild gold???? what a rip off..... just kidding.
It used to be in days gone past that people would bite their coins to see if they were fake (made of lead....think Underdog's Shoe shine boy). That's where it came from.
It actually goes back a lot further than that. It goes back to the days where some people might try to pass off fools gold (iron pyrite) as the real gold. Since gold is very soft, they would not really bite it hard, but just pressing the teeth against real gold, they could tell it was soft, and clearly not made of iron.
Coach, isn't that what it said in the story? People would bite their coins...
Shhhh, don't take away his moment
It's tacky and stupid. I'd tell the photographer to go f-ck himself.
If it's barely a sport, it's in the Olympics.
MB, it's not tacky or stupid. It has become an Olympic tradition. You don't like it or the Olympics in general, don't watch.
The only thing here that is tacky and stupid is your comment!
What a schmuck.
It is tacky.
You are right, MB--it **is** tacky and stupid. In one compartment of their lives, they are world-class athletes. However, in the "bite the medal because everyone else is doing it" compartment, they show the same lack of individuality as...Facebook users.
The athletes also sing the National Anthem when on the podium. Is that showing "lack of individuality"? Let them enjoy their moment. They choose to bite down on their medal. Don't watch if you don't like it although I can't see why it would bother anybody. Maybe you have "medal envy?
I have to agree with MB and Ace. It's tacky, and crass, and seriously bad manners toward the guest country. And I LOVE the Olympics, B from NY, both winter and summer. Love the medal ceremonies, not the silly antics afterward.
I agree on the tackiness. It's like saying to your host "just making sure you're not ripping me off". But beyond that, it's worn out. Might have been "original" the first 150 times. Now it's just tired and stupid.
They should start making the medals out of lead.
Ha! I was thinking of Underdog/Shoeshine also. I think biting a coin had something to do with making sure you didn't get any wooden nickels.
I also think it is tacky. I think that it degrades the dignity of the victory. On a similar note, I was extremely disappointed that the US women's gymnastics team did not sing along with the National Anthem. All this said, I certainly applaud their victories; kudos to you for your work and dedication!
Well, you just proved yourself to be the best in the world, you cant believe its "real" and you're holding a gold coin. Seems like a natural connection for a overwelmed brain. They probably barely realize the anthem is playing. This has to be a pretty over-the-top experience.
As for tacky, I'd refer you to a bunch of sweaty, toothless guys kissing the Stanley Cup. ;)
How can you sing along with music that contains no words? Maybe you mean why don't they sing while the music is playing? I was in the Military, and you are just suppose to salute or place your hand over your heart and be quiet while the song is playing. The anthem is the music, not the words, which is what they play at the Olympics. They only place I have ever heard someone singing the song is at Baseball or Basketball games, when they have a guest singer who usually butchers the song trying to be different.
You show respect by standing quietly, taking off your hat, and placing your hand over your heart. There is no requirement to sing to show respect for your country.
BP - REALLY !!! There is NOTHING wrong with signing the National Anthem, for those countries that have words to their Anthem it is a matter of pride to sign along, and I for one always sign along when I here it
I sign my hands off, every time it's played!
Peanut Gallery...well said!
I sign it too! Good one Roady!
Nadal always bites his trophies when he wins tennis championships. It may not have started with the Olympics.
I may be wrong about this, I thing it something gold miner did when pan handling
Gold ore directly taken from the earth is sometimes full of impurities and isn't necessarily soft. It also isn't usually found in pieces large enough to bite. It's very rare to find a chunk big enough to chomp on.
Pan handlers don't mine, they screen. Otherwise they are miners.
They take any ore, usually in the form of small pebbles and dust to an assayer for valuation and grading. The biting thing was done as a low tech test when someone was paying with a gold coin to ensure it wasn't brass.
The historical reason is because Gold is a soft metal. It's a traditional low-tech test to see if the metal was genuinely gold. If you could leave a mark, it was genuine.
If they want to bite their medals, if even in jest, then why should anyone else care?
Yeah, to hell w/ curiosity and the chance to learn something. And while we're at it, let's just keep doing things that others have done before us w/o ever asking "Why?". it's not like it's potentially the most important question ever asked. Let's just go through life never questioning, never thinking..... blissful in our ignorance.
Lead actually is softer than gold, and melts more easily. In the old times, before electroplating was invented, there was no way to plate lead with gold. Gold leaf does not count.
What's harder than pure gold is gold alloys and gold-like alloys, which were, obviously, cheaper.
Does anyone else suddenly have a craving for giant sugar cookies?
Ignorance is bliss.
I think it's great to uphold a wonderful tradition such as this!
A little silly tradition. Be thankful it doesn't involve body fluid!
One of three reasons:
1. Just making sure the Gold is real
2. Beats pinching ones self to make sure yer really awake and not dreaming
3. The Medals taste mighty good.
Thee Ox tips his hat to all the Americans who have won the Gold, and for winning the Silver and Bronze as well. Can't wait to see all yer pictures on Wheaties boxes!!
Yer Pal Always,
Thee
I like the idea of biting as a way to imprint on the medal. Kinda like licking something to make sure no one's going to take it from you.
Rafael Nadal popularized it several years and since then it has taken off.
bite your gold, is an old way of seeing if it is real gold. Most gold pieces were real and due to the softness, if a dent is made, then its real gold. In those day, gold was not mixed with other metals. this was the only way to test for real gold. Gold, is also a low temp metal and will melt, over an open firesight. Being no one wanted to lose any part of it, thay bit it for proof.
I think it's extremely tacky, to give out gold PLATED medals, in the first place! As if the Olympics don't bring in enough money to make them solid gold. What's next, plastic...
They just want to make sure it's real and not some fake gold-foil wrapped candy like they sell in the stores!
We had mined gold for years in the hills of Alaska, and while vacationing in Spain one winter, we were in a bar in Barcelona and a friendly Spaniard was fascinated with the gold nugget on a chain around my husband's neck. So, my hubby took it off to give the fellow a closer look. The Spaniard looked at both sides, held it up to the light, then put it in his mouth and chomped down on it – biting it in half!! We couldn't believe our eyes! And he was as stunned as we were! There was nothing that could be done with that one, and we ended smelting the pieces down. We asked him why he did it, and he said he'd seen the cowboys in Old Westerns do it whenever checking to see if nuggets were pure gold.
Gotta love silly sports superstitions. Every sport has some. I think it's hilarious the luger broke a tooth doing it. Funny stuff.
It's a silly thing they made do for the camera, manufacturing content as they say nowadays. It came from the old days of testing for the purity of real gold so if they know this the athletes would show their bite-test face, but nope, they are just doing what they think they are suppose to do. FAKE.
Duh.
Nadal started it in tennis with his trophies.