Recently, Xu Lijia, a famous Chinese sailing player and Olympic champion, released a dynamic, saying that the gold medal she won in London had actually oxidized. It is worth mentioning that Xu Lijia, unlike other athletes, will offer the Olympic gold medal as a treasure, and after she retired, she donated the gold medal, honorary trophy, training experience and other items to the Navigation Museum, hoping to inspire more people to participate in the sport.
But when Xu Lijia returned to the China Maritime Museum, she found that the Olympic gold medal she had won with all her efforts had already seen a significant oxidation phenomenon, and at first glance she thought it was a bronze medal. At Xu Lijia's request, an expert from the Maritime Museum restored the gold medal and finally restored its former luster.
According to common sense, if the gold medal is in the hands of individuals, it may be because of the lack of professional storage experience, the gold medal will have oxidation problems, but the problem is that Xu Lijia has donated the gold medal to the museum, and the storage measures must be more in place than ordinary athletes, and the result is still oxidation. So what exactly is the reason? After testing, it was found that this gold medal was originally made of sterling silver, but the surface was simply plated with a layer of gold, and after the gold plating was not deep processed, and no high-tech nano-treatment was carried out, in general, the workmanship was relatively rough, so oxidation would definitely occur after a long time.
Shortly after the tokyo Olympics, zhu Xueying, a goddess athlete who won the gold medal in the women's trampoline, complained that her gold medal had a "peeling" phenomenon, and a light touch with her hand would scrape off a large piece of outer layer, revealing the metal inside. At that time, the outside world made a fierce criticism of the Tokyo Olympic Games, but the Japanese Mint came forward to say that they did not know the specific situation, did not receive similar reports, and the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee did not give a clear explanation to this day, let alone replace the gold medal. Because Japan has always claimed to have a "craftsman spirit" in all walks of life, this incident caused an uproar.
But what people did not expect is that the quality of the Gold Medal in the London Olympic Games is comparable to that of Tokyo, in addition to Xu Lijia, former gymnastics champion Deng Linlin also said that the quality of the gold medal in London is far inferior to the gold inlaid jade in Beijing. The cost of the Beijing Olympic gold medal is about 3,000 yuan, because it was more than 10 years ago, if it were placed today, it might be called the cost of the 5,000 yuan Tokyo Olympic Gold Medal, and in the history of the Olympic Games, it is definitely a well-made and expensive gold medal. Because of this, the Beijing Olympic gold medal is waterproof, anti-fall, anti-damage, as long as it is not deliberately holding a sharp object to engage in damage, generally there will be no problem. Even the gold-encrusted ribbon was able to prevent fires, and a fire broke out in the home of a former Russian athlete, and everything was burned to the ground, and only the gold medal was intact, which shocked the world at the time.