Have you ever wondered: Why Olympians bite their medals?
It’s not a chocolate coin wrapped in gold foil, people. That’s actual metal that composes that Olympic medal, so why do athletes bite them?
#Olympics: #Azizulhasni dedicates bronze medal to #Malaysiahttps://t.co/DEmNTVKkyx @AzizulAWANG pic.twitter.com/MKa4eTZljd
— New Straits Times (@NST_Online) August 17, 2016
#PocketRocketMan Azizulhasni takes bronze in Rio 2016. Awang bites his bronze medal during podium photo shoot session.
The Idea
The idea of biting Olympic medals mirrors the historic practice of biting coins to check for counterfeits. Traditionally, if someone bit a coin and left a dent, it was thought to be real gold.
According to the Mohs Hardness Scale – which measures how hard and soft minerals are – gold is a meta softer than human teeth. Unlike pyrite or silver, which can break human teeth.
However, Olympic medals haven’t been made out of pure gold since the 1919 Stockholm Games. So, today’s medal biting is purely for show.
Iconic Shot
“It’s become an obsession with the photographers,” David Wallechinsky, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians and co-author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics” told CNN in 2012. “I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell. I don’t think it’s something the athletes would probably do on their own.”
With that in mind, it’s likely that Old West/pirate lore led to someone once biting their Olympic medal in a spontaneous, “Is this real life?” moment, and the photographers thought it was cute. Because if someone really was hoping to discover whether that gold medal is pure gold, their smiles would quickly fade.
Final Thought
Bite medal while taking picture is mainly because of incessantly ask them to until they do it, usually at the end of the podium photo shoot sessions.
source: washingtonpost.com
Malaysia Badminton Rio 2016
last update: 10:35PM 17/8/16
Our men Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong put on a gritty performance to triumph over Chinese duo Chai Biao and Hong Wei in the Rio Olympics semi-finals yesterday night, 16 August.
One day earlier, national mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Yiu Ling defied all odds to make it to the finals of the Olympics with a straight sets victory over Xu Chen-Ma Jin of China.
Lee Chong Wei one step closer to elusive Olympic gold. He’s going to face Lin Dan in the semi-final.
Will all of them bite GOLD medal in Rio 2016 Olympic? Well, we sure they certainly will strive their best! We, Malaysians, will always rally behind our national heroes! We, Penang Foodie send our best wishes here from Penang, Malaysia!
#MalaysiaBoleh #BringUsGold #AyuhMalaysiaKu
Cheers! 🙂
