The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
I don't know if you have seen it recently, but in recent times, our Chinese team has really been like a rainbow and has won a lot of medals. While we are proud and blessed for them, I don't know if you have noticed that this year's medal actually has some characteristics, and there is a black place on it. Shouldn't gold medals be made of gold? Why is there a black spot on it? In fact, the reason behind it is very simple. [Beer]
1
History of Olympic medals
If we want to talk about this incident, we can actually go back more than 100 years ago, when the first Olympic Games were held. At that time, the rules and regulations were far less complex than they are now, there were fewer specific categories and projects, and the countries involved were not as big as they are now, but more like a niche category between several countries. Even when it was held for the first and second time, there was no such thing as a "gold medal".
What many people don't know is that in fact, this form of awards, which is very common now, actually originated 120 years ago. At that time, it was the third modern Olympic Games, and at that time, the organizers innovatively adopted a different form from the previous two editions, using the three medals of "gold, silver, and bronze" to award the first, second and third places in the event respectively.
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Later, everyone found that this method is quite good, and it can be very intuitive to let everyone see which one is more valuable and gradually passed on, and the next two sessions also follow this model, and use the real "gold medal" to award the players. However, with the gradual change of the times, although the system of "three cards" has not changed, the components of it have begun to change, especially the "gold medal" seems to be less golden!
Some people may wonder why it has become less "golden" in the first place. In fact, the reason is also very simple, that is, some "small changes" have taken place in the world - a world war has broken out! Years of war led to far-reaching changes in the economic pattern of the world at that time, and a direct manifestation of this was the rising price of gold, which was the "hard currency". Finally, for economic considerations, people began to use gold-plated medals instead of the original "gold medals".
Some people say that this is where to go, and should this little cost be saved? To be honest, this is really not a small amount, we can do a simple calculation to know, first of all, our current conventional medals are basically in the middle of 500-800g, and if replaced with gold, considering a density problem, the same size needs to use more weight, we conservatively estimate to 1000g a piece, and refer to today's gold price of about 570 yuan.
This means that even if only the most basic material cost is calculated, it will cost nearly 600,000 yuan a piece. And if all the various events are counted, there are almost 200-300 events that need to be awarded medals. Not to mention that there are many team events in it, and each member has to have a medal. Counting the Paralympics and the reserved reserves, it is very likely that about 1,000 yuan will be produced and stored at a time, and it will be hundreds of millions of yuan.
To be honest, this is a lot of expenses, not to mention that you don't consider the price, you also have to think about who has nothing to do and hang something more than a kilogram around your neck every day, which is very tiring. So in the end, everyone summed it up and simply used the "silver gold-plating" method to make gold medals, but some simple standards were formulated, that is, gold should be at least 6g, and the purity of silver should not be low, and there are certain requirements for size and size.
2
Medals for a new era
Of course, these requirements mentioned above are actually only "minimum standards", as long as the requirements of these regulations are met, the rest can be designed and adjusted according to their own needs. We used this medal as an example, and the final design of the gram was 529g, of which there was about 505g of silver, and then 6g of gold plating was used as required, which has met the minimum requirements of the Olympic Committee, and then ingeniously used a "small iron block" of less than 20g.
Medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
You may wonder why a small piece of iron can be put on it, but it is actually because it is not an ordinary piece of iron. Let's take an example, that is, a brick taken from the top of the Great Wall may be similar in composition to an ordinary brick, but the value embodied is completely different. The same is true of this small piece of iron, their source is the Eiffel Tower, a landmark building in France, and the materials replaced during the renovation are actually not bad.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals
And many people may not know a cold knowledge that although the dosage this time does not exceed the most basic category, but the price of gold has risen too much in recent years, even according to the minimum use standards. Each piece also cost more than $900, successfully topping the most expensive medal (even more expensive than the gold medals of the past when inflation is not taken into account), and the most expensive was about $800 a piece at the last Tokyo edition.
The official tweet of the Olympic Organizing Committee advised athletes not to bite the medals, because they are medals made from recycled e-waste
The funniest thing is that Japan is so expensive, and the result is still the so-called "recycled metal", or we can put it bluntly, it is extracted from those scrapped electronic waste. The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee even made it clear on its social media that everyone should stop biting when they receive the medal, this thing is the metal they extract from tens of thousands of tons of electronic waste, and if you bite indiscriminately, don't look for them if you get sick.
Medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics
To be honest, this is indeed "environmentally friendly", but it always gives people a weird feeling. It's hard for us to evaluate whether it's good or bad for people to do this, but just talk about our own subjective feelings, I think the best and most meaningful thing in these years has to be our "gold inlaid jade" design. Elegant and generous, even a small buckle is made of dragon pattern Huang, which actually profoundly expresses our "combination of Chinese and Western" design concept. Which gold medal design do you like best? You can share your thoughts with everyone in the comment area!
Resources:
[1] Henan Satellite TV - 2024.07.27 "Olympic Medal Design Competition, Which One Ranks First in Your Heart?" 》
[2] Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology - 2024.07.30"Paris Olympic Games medals are made of scrap? Interesting knowledge has been added again"