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The medals athletes win through the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan may very well be much more useful than in previous video games due to hovering gold and silver costs.
Olympic gold medals are now not product of stable gold. The final time a pure gold medal was awarded was on the 1912 Summer time Olympic Video games in Stockholm, Sweden, Bobby Eaton, an Olympics memorabilia skilled at Boston-based RR Public sale, instructed CBS Information. Now, the Worldwide Olympic Committee solely requires that gold medals include a minimum of 92.5% silver, in accordance with IOC tips.
Olympic gold medals at the moment are composed of 500 grams of silver plated with six grams of pure gold. Silver medals comprise 500 grams of silver and no gold plating. Bronze medals are stable bronze.
At present treasured steel costs and based mostly solely on the mineral contents, the so-called “soften worth” of an Olympic gold medal is round $2,500.
On Monday, the worth of gold rose to $5,090 per ounce. Six grams is the same as 0.2 ounces, giving the gold contained within the Winter Olympic medals a price of $1,018. At $83 an oz., the silver contained in a gold medal is value about $1,463. That will make a gold medal value $2,481, simply based mostly on the worth of its elements.
Gold costs soared to document highs final month, surpassing $5,000 for the primary time, as traders flocked to the dear steel to hedge towards dangers associated to geopolitical uncertainty and rising world debt.
Athletes who bought medals
After all, Olympic medals sometimes have a far higher monetary worth due to their historic significance and collectability. If an athlete had been to attempt to promote their medal quickly after the video games, they may fetch between $50,000 and $80,000, Eaton instructed CBS Information.
“There’s a discrepancy between the soften worth and precise collectible worth,” he mentioned.
Whereas most Olympic athletes maintain on to their hard-earned medals, some prize winners resell them for costs that may replicate their status and significance. In 2013, one in every of 4 gold medals received by U.S. monitor and subject athlete Jesse Owens on the 1936 Olympic Video games in Berlin was auctioned for $1.47 million — a document for an Olympic medal, in accordance with SCP Auctions, which dealt with the sale.
Greg Louganis, the famed American diver who received a complete of 5 gold medals and one silver medal on the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympics, additionally parted methods with three of his 5 medals. In 2025, his Seoul 1988 Summer time Olympics gold medal for 10-meter platform diving bought for over $200,000, in accordance with RR Public sale, which dealt with the sale.
Louganis’s Los Angeles 1984 Summer time Olympics gold medal for 3-meter springboard diving bought for just below $200,000, whereas his Montreal 1976 Summer time Olympics silver medal for the 10-meter platform occasion bought for greater than $30,000. The medal gross sales allowed Louganis to maneuver to Panama, Eaton, who dealt with the sale, instructed CBS Information.
“He mentioned the cash he received from promoting his medals let him begin his life again up once more so he might do what he wished to do,” Eaton mentioned.
Extra not too long ago, swimming champ Ryan Lochte in 2022 auctioned six of his medals — three silver, three bronze — to lift cash for a youngsters’s charity. Over 4 Olympics, he received a complete of 12 medals, together with six gold.
“I am not one to be all sentimental about medals,” Lochte instructed The Related Press on the time. “My medals are simply sitting in my closet accumulating mud. The reminiscences that I’ve is what means probably the most.”
Deal with with care
This yr’s medals are drawing consideration for one more cause that might presumably take a number of the shine off. The Olympics Organizing Committee mentioned it’s investigating an “situation affecting a small quantity” of the prizes after some athletes complained that their medals had damaged.
“Do not soar in them,” Breezy Johnson, who received the gold medal in downhill snowboarding for Staff USA on Sunday, instructed reporters after her race.
“I used to be leaping in pleasure and it broke. I am certain any person will repair it — it isn’t like loopy damaged — but it surely’s slightly damaged,” she mentioned.
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