I was shocked when I saw a news story recently when a U.S. gold medalist from the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, was showing off her broken medal. Apparently, it broke while she was jumping around in excitement. That bit of cheap craftsmanship led me down a rabbit hole of investigating a little more about Olympic medals.
Did you know that Olympic gold medals are not made of solid gold? I was absolutely shocked by that until I learned that if they were made of solid gold, a single medal would cost about $45,000 at the current cost of gold. But, even then, you may think to yourself, as I did, that $45,000 is a worthy prize for taking the top spot in your sport.
That word “sport” is used rather loosely in the Olympics these days, isn’t it? I’m not one to make fun of curling (much); it’s a fun activity with a group of friends that’s played on a surface that doubles as a beer cooler. But is it a “sport”? Do we really want to give a $45,000 medal to all five members of an Olympic curling team? Isn’t curling just a Canadian version of cornhole? (Okay, fine, it was technically invented in Scotland, but let’s not get technical.)
And what about larger teams? Olympic hockey carries a 25-person roster (25 players × $45,000 gold medals = $1,125,000). That’s a hefty cost. You might suggest that hockey is a popular sport, so the medal cost is justified. I might agree with you on hockey, but when we get to the summer Olympics, there is no way you are going to convince me that Olympic handball, which carries a 14-person roster, is worthy of $45,000 medals per person! How on earth did handball become an Olympic sport? I would apologize to the Olympic handball teams, but I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.
Moving away from the top of the podium, if you’re curious, Olympic silver medals are made of solid sterling silver and carry a cost of under $1,500 each, and third place carries solid, authentic bronze at a whopping cost of $6 apiece. Maybe we should give the marquee, one-athlete sports solid gold and give the handball players solid bronze and just tell them it’s gold. After all, someone told them handball was a real sport and they believed it.
