Picture the iconic Olympic photograph featuring athletes proudly sinking their teeth into the dazzling gold medals of their dreams. It’s splashed across headlines, gracing the front page of every newspaper, celebrating another historic feat that redefines the boundaries of human strength and power.
Recently, even the Philippines’ gymnast Carlos Yulo — the first Filipino to win a pair of gold medals — participated in the famous tradition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Amid the jubilation, where and how did the act of biting medals start?
History
During the ancient marketplaces, biting gold was a method to confirm its true value beyond mere appearance. Gold’s high malleability allows it to be easily shaped without breaking. According to a highly rated New Zealand company specializing in gold and precious metals, Goldsmart, “If a person bit a coin and found that the bite mark left an impression, it indicated that the coin was genuine — or at least soft enough to be gold.”
Despite its rudimentary nature, this method was a practical solution in a time before advanced metallurgical techniques. It provided a quick, albeit imprecise, means of ensuring that the gold used in transactions was genuine and not a mere imitation.
“However, it’s safe to say that the Olympic champions are not checking for the purity of their medals when they pose for the photos with the metal disc in their mouths,” wrote the Olympics website in a 2021 article.
Request
David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, told CNN, “It’s become an obsession with the photographers.”
It’s now clear that Olympians bite their medals not always out of personal choice, but because they’re asked to. After standing on the podium, surrounded by a sea of photographers all urging you to give that iconic bite, who could muster the courage to refuse?
Wallechinsky suggested that the athletes might view it as an iconic shot, something marketable, but not necessarily something they would choose to do on their own.
Germany’s silver medal-winning luge star, David Moeller, had an unexpected trip to the dentist after breaking a front tooth while biting into his medal. The 28-year-old explained, “The photographers wanted us to bite into our medals at the presentation ceremony. And a corner of my front tooth broke off.”
Tradition
When Wallechinsky spoke about the gold-biting tradition during the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the practice had already taken hold more than a decade later. Athletes no longer need prompting from photographers; they’ve come to recognize the gesture as part of the celebration.
“Photos of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Simone Biles pretending to chomp into their freshly earned medals are some of the most iconic pictures from the Olympic Games,” wrote the Olympics website.
And before Yulo’s golden bite, there was Hidilyn Diaz, the pioneering Filipina Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting from 2020, who also had her iconic moment in the spotlight.
Symbolism
Biting the medal is a blend of historical practice, modern-day celebration and media-driven tradition. It continues to be a fun and symbolic gesture that adds to the festive atmosphere of the Olympic Games.
At the heart of the Olympic Games is the celebration of human achievement and excellence. The gesture captures the essence of their hard-earned triumph and serves as a vivid, relatable image of success for fans around the world.