Why do Olympic athletes bite their medals?

Most athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics bit their gold medals, an action that has long been a part of the history of the Olympics as well as many other sporting events.

Awarding medals to the winners of the competitions is a mandatory traditional ritual. But behind the athletes' actions of biting their medals are many reasons that even Olympic historians cannot confirm the real reason.

Nadal and Marc Lopez bite the gold medal in the men's doubles tennis that they won for Spain yesterday. Photo: Reuters.

Some say the athlete wanted to use his teeth to check if the gold was real or fake.Cowboys in the American West used to bite gold to test its purity. Human teeth are harder than real gold, but softer than iron pyrite (a metal that also has a bright yellow color). Biting gold will leave a mark, while biting other metals can chip a tooth.

But this explanation is not very convincing, because the gold medals at the modern Olympics since 1912 have been made mainly from silver with a ratio of up to 92.5% and only a thin layer of gold covering the silver compound. Olympic athletes all know that gold medals are not made from pure gold. The gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics was made with the main components being an alloy of silver and copper, while gold only accounted for a ratio of more than 1% (some sources give the exact ratio as 1.34%).

The most convincing reason is habit.When watching on television and in the press, athletes can see images of other athletes biting their medals and they imitate them.

Mack Horton may bite the medal because he wants to imitate many seniors who have done this before. Photo: Reuters.

And that habit may come from the reporters themselves.working at medal ceremonies, when they ask athletes to pose for photos.

NBC recently questioned two Olympic athletes about why they bit their gold medals. Both said photographers told them to do so to capture the special moment.

CNN also found a similar explanation in a 2012 interview on the occasion of the London Olympics. At that time, Mr. David Wallechinsky, President of the International Society of Olympic Historians, said: “The act of biting medals has become an obsession for photojournalists. I think they see it as an iconic angle of the perfect moment, creating photos that they can sell. In normal times, I don’t think athletes like to bite medals.”

Mireia Belmonte Garcia celebrates winning the women's 200m butterfly gold medal on August 12. Photo: AFP.

Franck Fife, a sports photographer for AFP, also confirmed that the medal-biting behavior of athletes is mainly due to requests from reporters. He said: "Athletes always have to do something with their medals to create an angle that reporters think is impressive."

According to VNE