Not much gold in a gold medal..

[truman]

That is true, but it's a different "they" ... Locog arranged the details of the torch relay and will receive the proceeds from the torch sales, but the medals are commissioned, and paid for, directly by the IOC. The alloys used have been the same for many years.

 

This is not meant as justification for the alloys being what they are - I don't know what the IOC's justification is, or ever was - I just want to ensure that people who are unimpressed by it, are unimpressed at the right bunch.

 

'cos there's enough to be unimpressed by Locog without making things worse

[HeadingNorth]

I did say "many years" - apparently it's now exactly 100 years since the last medals of solid gold were awarded.

 

details here .. though it still doesn't say why the change was made. I can't think of any reason besides cost (solid gold being too soft, could have been rectified by making them 92.5% gold and 7.5% silver instead of the other way around) ... but I have read nothing that says cost was indeed the reason.

[poppins]

I knew a lady, now passed away that had a gold medal from the 1948 Olympics , they gave her a fake one also to display, i wish now I'd asked her more about the medal itself, her name was Marie .Corridon, I remember her telling me all the athletes went over by boat, that's when she met and dated Grace Kelly's brother, he was with the rowing team.

 

She was goods friend with the girl that did all the diving scenes for Ester Williams, Williams could swim but not a good diver.

[alternageek]

Seems the gold medals are mostly silver just plated with a small amount of gold, not worth much, I thought they would be solid gold

 

I dont think theyve been solid gold for years. Albertville, in 1992, were mainly glass.

[Uptowngirl]

Isn't gold too soft to be used to make solid gold medals - they'd be chipped, scratched and dinted within hours?

 

It never seemed to stop them making Krugerrands, Sovereigns & £5 gold pieces.

 

I think it is purely down to cost and weight. A gold medal would weigh 3/4 pound

[HeadingNorth]

It never seemed to stop them making Krugerrands, Sovereigns & £5 gold pieces.

 

Gold sovereigns are 22-carat; not quite pure. I've always understood that this is precisely because a solid gold coin would be too soft.

 

Olympic medals, on the other hand, are at most 7.5% gold - less than two carat. They don't have to be that low a percentage of gold to avoid softness issues; that clearly wasn't the reason.

[chem1st]

100 years since the last gold medal.

 

Back then Germany was on the Gold standard. It came off the GS in 1914.

[BLADE8T1]

I have never thought that gold medals were gold,but I do think they should be,or at least hold the majority over copper in order to be called a "gold medal".

The people on here that mention the amount it would cost,really?.

Its merely a drop in the ocean,compared to the billions spent on hosting the games.

They should be in my opinion like a krugerrand at the very minimum.

[HeadingNorth]

I have never thought that gold medals were gold,but I do think they should be,or at least hold the majority over copper in order to be called a "gold medal".

The people on here that mention the amount it would cost,really?.

Its merely a drop in the ocean,compared to the billions spent on hosting the games.

 

In the days when the decision was taken to change the alloys used, the Olympics genuinely were an amateur event, and cost a fortune. Perhaps, back then, cost really was a factor.

 

Nowadays, with corporate sponsors and whatnot, the Games make a fortune (for the IOC, certainly, and often for the hosts too despite how many billions they spend) ... it's nigh on impossible to justify them on cost grounds; perhaps now, the only reason they are what they are is because they always have been for the last century. Tradition, my boy, and all that rot.