China News Network, July 18 -- Just two years have passed since the Tokyo Olympics, and the wonderful moments in my memory are still vivid, but the medals of the Tokyo Olympics have "faded".
A few days ago, kayaker Zheng Pengfei posted a complain that the silver medal he won at the Tokyo Olympics began to oxidize after only two years, "it has become scrap iron."
Image source: Chinese canoeist Zheng Pengfei Weibo
"My Olympic medal has been at home for nearly 2 years, take it out today and take a look, that's it, it's scrap iron, time proves that this is made of scrap, the quality of any competition medal in the country is better than this, who wants it?" It may also be that I did not store properly, on a case-by-case basis, and did not deliberately target anyone. It is also one of the few cases in my family where medals oxidize. ”
Under Zheng Pengfei's Weibo, some netizens jokingly asked: "Although I know, I still want to ask, buddy, did you get an iron medal back then?" ”
Some netizens remembered the Beijing Olympic medals that were "not bad in case of fire": "Russian rhythmic gymnast, there was a fire in her home, almost all the items were burned, but the gold medal won in China in 2008 is still good." ”
There are also kind netizens who have advised Zheng Pengfei, and some netizens suggested: Let's get another gold for the Paris Olympics.
Screenshot of netizen comment.
In the men's double canoe 1000m final of the Tokyo Olympics, Zheng Pengfei and Liu Hao won the silver medal, and the Chinese canoe team won another Olympic medal after 13 years.
In fact, Zheng Pengfei is not the first athlete to "complain" about the "quality problems" of the Tokyo Olympic medals.
In August 2021, shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, women's trampoline champion Zhu Xueying posted that her Olympic gold medal "peeled off".
Screenshot of Zhu Xueying, the women's trampoline gymnastics champion at the Tokyo Olympics.
She posted her "peeling" gold medal, and a mottled mark appeared in the upper left position of the medal in the picture. In the accompanying text, Zhu Xueying wrote: "Your medals... Can you also deduct a layer of skin? ”
Later, she added the specific situation of "peeling" in the comments: I really didn't deliberately buckle this at the beginning, and I found that a small piece was missing (just like in picture 1), I thought it was dirty, so I rubbed it with my hand, and found that there was no change, so I buttoned it ... Just..."
According to media reports, in response to the "gold medal peeling" incident, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee replied that the peeling part is not gold plating, but a layer of coating film applied to the surface of the medal, in order to prevent fine scratches, dents and stains on the medal, to play a protective role, the material of the film itself determines that it will not permanently adhere to the surface of the medal. Even if the surface coating film is peeled off, it does not affect the quality of the medal itself.
According to previous reports, the Tokyo Olympics medals were made from recycled materials from electronic devices donated by the Japanese public.
In order to produce medals for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee has publicly collected small electronic devices, including used mobile phones.
According to the official website of the Tokyo Olympics, from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2019, about 78,000 tons of equipment (including small electronic devices including waste collection) were collected by various levels of government in Japan, and about 6.21 million used mobile phones were collected by Japanese telecommunications operator NTT Dukomo stores.
According to the Japanese government's "Campaign to Collect Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment", designated companies sort and disassemble small electronic equipment donated by people, and then melt workers to extract gold, silver and copper from the equipment for medal making.
Infographic: Tokyo Olympic medal style.
The final amount of metal collected included about 32 kg of gold, about 3,500 kg of silver and about 2,200 kg of copper.
In the two years from April 2017 to March 2019, all the metals needed to make about 5,000 gold, silver, and bronze medals were extracted from small electronic devices donated by society throughout Japan. Every medal awarded to athletes during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics is made from recycled metal.
In previous reports, this was seen as one of the environmental elements of the Tokyo Olympics. The Tokyo Organising Committee also sees it as an "effort for ecologically sustainable development." (End)