But from a purely material point of view, the Olympic medals are actually not as valuable as everyone thinks, and the real value often lies in the events behind the medals and the winners. Throughout the 65,438+000-year history of the Olympic Games, some winners choose to collect, but some winners choose to sell medals because of their life or charitable donations. Olympic medals go to pawn shops and auction houses, and can be bought by collectors like commemorative coins, signature sneakers, badges and other sports souvenirs.
1896, the first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece, but the tradition of awarding gold medals to the best athletes in each event began in the third St. Louis Olympic Games in 1904. At that time, the gold medal was made of 100% gold, but its diameter was only 39 mm, only a few tens of grams.
Following 1908 London Olympic Games, 19 12 Stockholm Olympic Games became the last Olympic Games in which the gold medal was pure gold, because after the outbreak of World War I, precious metals were in short supply and gold was only a part of the Olympic gold medal.
At present, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stipulates that Olympic medals should be at least 60mm in diameter and 3cm in thickness. The gold medal is made of at least 92.5% silver with at least 6 grams of gold on the surface; Silver and bronze medals are made of silver and copper respectively according to their names.
Compared with the Summer Olympic Games, the medals of the Winter Olympic Games have neither a fixed pattern nor a fixed shape. The materials used are the combination of metal and glass, stalagmites and paint.
Except for the 1900 Olympic Games, the medals in the summer Olympic Games are all round, while the medals in the winter Olympic Games are more diverse, round and square, and the medals in the winter Olympic Games are usually bigger, thicker and heavier than those in the summer Olympic Games.
But from the perspective of materials alone, the value of Olympic medals is not high. Generally speaking, most Olympic medals weigh about 500 grams. Judging from the 556 grams of gold medals in the 202 1 Tokyo Olympic Games, including 6 grams of gold and 550 grams of silver, excluding labor costs, the cost is about 8 10, and the cost of silver and bronze medals is about 5,000 yuan.
This means that a mobile phone, a computer and a plane ticket may be more expensive than the highest medal awarded at the Olympic Games.
Of course, the value of Olympic medals is not only the collection of metals, but also the honor and reputation behind them.
Jonathan Scheier, director of Heritage Auctions, the world's largest auction house for sports collections, said that the auction price of an Olympic gold medal is often between 20,000 and 50,000 US dollars, the silver medal is usually between 654.38+0.000 and 30,000 US dollars, and the bronze medal is generally within 654.38+0.000 US dollars.
"But the silver or bronze medals of famous athletes will definitely be more expensive than the gold medals of relatively unknown athletes." For example, Olympic superstars such as jesse owens, carl lewis, michael phelps or Usain Bolt won medals at auction prices much higher than ordinary gold medals.
So are summer Olympic medals more valuable than winter Olympic medals? This also depends on the venues and the winning athletes to some extent, but according to the experience of auction houses, the value of winter Olympics medals in the auction is generally lower than that of summer medals, but there are some exceptions. Mark Wells won the gold medal of ice hockey in the US 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, which was sold at a price as high as 3 10700 US dollars.
We may think that medals are symbols of athletes' years of hard work, so how can we be willing to auction them? But for some foreign athletes, winning the Olympic Games does not mean that they will be rich or well-fed all their lives.
Some auction house executives pointed out that in general, after the death of the winning athletes, their families will auction medals. For athletes who are still alive but choose to auction medals, the reason is usually tragic.
American ice hockey player Mark Wells and his teammates beat the Soviet team to win the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics, but after helping the American team win the championship, Wells failed to sign up for the main team. 1982 He was only 25 years old when he retired.
Wells returned to his hometown to run a restaurant after retiring, but was accidentally injured while unloading. He had an operation of 1 1 hour. The doctor found that he suffered from a rare degenerative disease of the spine. Wells was ill in bed for a long time and couldn't work. Finally, he had to sell the gold medal to a private collector for $40,000.
He sold the medal because he needed the money to run and support his family, but then a private collector sold Wells' gold medal at an auction price of 310.07 million US dollars (about 6.5438+0.97 million RMB).
20 19 Michael Diamond, the former Australian Olympic shooting champion, had to auction the gold medal he won at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games for $62,000 to raise the cost of heart transplant. As early as 20 17, Michael sold his gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games for $72,000 to pay his lawyer's fees.
In foreign countries, active athletes can get many resources, including subsidies, scholarships, medical insurance and so on. , but no longer enjoy these resources after retirement. Louganis, a diver who won four Olympic titles in the United States, once faced financial difficulties and wanted to sell medals. He said that athletes need counseling in mental health and financial management during the transition period.
When athletes have to sell medals because of poor financial management or unable to earn enough money to make a living, the existing career plans for athletes (such as the ACE plan of USOPC) do not prepare them for career, finance and self-improvement.
In addition, some winning athletes will auction medals for charitable purposes. In 20 12, Wladimir Klitschko, a Ukrainian boxer, auctioned the gold medal he won in Atlanta, Georgia196 Summer Olympic Games, and the transaction price was100000, which was donated to the children's charity founded by him and his brother.
Similarly, Maria Andrejczyk, a 25-year-old Polish women's javelin medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, chose to auction her medal online in order to raise money for an 8-month-old boy's heart-changing operation, and finally sold it for 500,000 Polish zlotys (about 770,000 RMB).
At present, the highest auction price of Olympic medals comes from the gold medal won by American track and field athlete jesse owens at 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. This gold medal was auctioned in 20 19, and the transaction price was nearly1500,000 USD (1466,574 USD).
Of course, most athletes will treasure their Olympic medals somewhere, and a few will give them to a special person, but whatever they do, they will leave a special mark on the history of the world's largest sports meeting.