If you win a gold medal at the Olympics are you actually getting a solid 100% gold medal?! The answer is actually no.
In fact full gold medals haven’t been given since the 1912 Olympics. Today’s Olympic Gold Medals are actually made mostly of all silver. Then there is small thin coating of about 6 grams of gold so it can meet the standard laid out in the Olympic Charter.
Fun fact about this year’s medals for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo… they were made from 80,000 tons of recycled electronics. The medals in Tokyo weigh about 1.2 pounds each. If they were all made of pure gold that would end up costing close to $32,000 per medal, based on current market prices for gold. So you can see why they opted for the coated instead.
Now if you ever meet someone who has an Olympic gold medal you can share this with them!
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