Did the medals of the Paris Olympics really start to change color and rust after a week?

The Olympian himself complained

Several social media users recently shared a video showing the year 2024. Received a medal at the Paris Olympics.

“These Olympic medals look cool when they’re new. But when I put it on my skin, where there was a little sweat, and I let my friends hang it over the weekend, it seems that they are not as great quality as you think,” says a male voice behind the frame.

It is not specified who is speaking, but it should be understood that it is a participant in the games. This is confirmed by a visible caption in English: “Olympian reveals shocking state of medals after a week.”

“Judging by the quality of the metal, which darkened and peeled off within a week, the athletes were badly cheated at the Olympics. The medal costs only a few dollars (the language has not been corrected – last ed.)”, – asserts clip sharing users of social networks.

It should be understood that the speaker is also the recipient of this medal, although he does not say so. It is not clear in which sport and event. From the video, it is only obvious that the bronze medal is shown, which can be identified by the color (it is pinker than gold).

Search the Internet using multiple keywords not only confirms that the change shown was indeed one medal, but also reveals which athlete was not so lucky.

However, the netizens are wrong to belittle the value of the rewards – their price is hundreds of times higher.

The historic award is no longer like that

Bronze medal filmed and publicly shown by the US skateboarder Nyjah Hustonasone of the most titled representatives of this sport. He was in the last summer Olympics for sure won third place on the men’s street circuit.

The athlete won the award on July 29, and already 10 days later he published a post on the social network Instagram, which shows that the medal looks a little different than in the official in photos and videos – faded and as if rusty.

“The medal looks like it’s been in the war,” ironized skateboarder According to N. Huston, the surface of the medal became rough, it looked like it started to peel off. He also called for improving the quality of Olympic awards.

Britain’s Yasmin Harper had similar complaints about the medal. She is with partner Scarlett Mew Jensen won bronze synchronized jumps from a 3 m springboard in the match. It wasn’t just that the first Great Britain’s medal at this year’s Olympics, but also the first this country won the award in this discipline after a gap of 64 years.

Sportswoman too claimedit is said that the medal started to lose its color after only a week. However, since it was still a bronze award, she admitted not giving much importance to it.

An Olympics spokesperson told Time that organizers are aware of complaints on social media about the quality of the medals. He pointed outthat, considering the circumstances and changes in the metal, the awardees will receive others instead of the damaged medals.

The damage is most likely caused by the properties of the metal. If not protected, bronze reacts with the oxygen in the air, forming a dim patina. This explains the appearance of N. Huston’s medal. How quickly bronze disintegrates depends on the proportion of metals in the alloy, although cheaper metals often speed up the process, India Express said sculptor Neeraj Gupta.

Medals will be expensive

Even before the Olympics, a lot of information was published about the price of the medals and what they are made of. Medals are not always taste from the metal from which they are named.

At the Paris Olympics, only silver medals weighing 525 g were minted from it alone. The highest quality medals were technically the same silver, only gold-plated – they were made of 523 grams of silver, which was also covered with 6 grams of gold.

Bronze medals have the greatest variety – they weigh 455 grams and are made of a mixture of copper, tin and zinc.

In a break with tradition, this year’s Olympic medals contained a hidden surprise – a piece of iron from the Eiffel Tower. These rewards usually do not contain iron.

Olympic medals have not only material, but also historical and personal value. The latter can be different for each athlete – it depends on the number of available awards, the result achieved, the efforts put in, whether the record was improved together, the total number of awards won by the represented country, even their age and other circumstances.

Also read: Interesting facts about the Olympic awards: silver medals for the champions of the games

The historical value is determined by the fact that it is an Olympic award. It can also be enhanced or diminished by the circumstances surrounding the Olympic Games or subsequent events. For example, in the context of the war in Ukraine in 1980 The Olympics held in Moscow may have some image. For Lithuanians, the medals won in 1992 may be more important. At the Summer Olympics in Barcelona – the first after regaining independence.

There is also a prosaic aspect – the value of the medal as a product made of precious metal. forbes announcedthat this year’s Olympic gold medal is worth 950 US dollars (approximately 860 euros at the current exchange rate). Silver medal worth approximately 436 euros.

Also read: An Olympic medal as an investment: how much would it cost?

This year’s medals costs more than those sharing during the Tokyo Olympics. For example, their gold medal cost 644 euros. It was significantly more than 497 euros (that was the value of the previous one, the highest award at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics). But this year the price is a record.

Screenshot from Facebook/The bronze medals won by some athletes at the Paris Olympics really began to change, this happened due to the reaction of the metal with oxygen

This is because the price of the metals from which the medals are minted fluctuates. Therefore, economist Diego Cacciapuoti of Oxford Economics, an economic consulting and forecasting company, predicts that during the next Olympic Games these medals will be more expensive.

But the bronze award is certainly much cheaper than those awarded for first and second places. Because they are not forged from precious metals. This year costs 4.6 USD. But in 2028, when the Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, they should cost 5.2 dollars, and in 2032 during the Brisbane Olympics – as low as $6.

15min verdict: missing context. Some athletes really complained that the bronze medals received at the Paris Olympics soon began to change. This happened due to the reaction of the metal with oxygen. These third place awards don’t really cost much (unlike gold and silver), but they have intangible value.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.