India’s badminton star PV Sindhu won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. She thus took her personal Olympics medal tally to two five years after winning her first medal - a silver - at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The achievement shows that the 26-year-old continues to be one of the top players in women’s badminton in the world.
Like Sindhu, sportspersons have to put years of hard work to win a medal - gold, silver or bronze - at the Olympics. Hence it is impossible to gauge the sentimental value attached to the coveted medal.
So this explainer will tell you the ingredients of each Olympics medal and the amount of gold, silver and bronze it contains.
How much gold does an Olympics gold medal contain?
A gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics weighs 556 grams. But it contains only six grams of gold. Silver makes up the remaining 550 grams. It means that the gold medal contains more silver than gold. Going by the gold rate in Kerala on August 2, the yellow medal contains gold worth just Rs 27,000 (Gold price per gram is Rs 4,500 on August 2 in Kochi). Adding the price of silver (silver price per gram on August 2 is Rs 68 in Kochi. 550 grams of silver is priced at Rs 33,000), the total value of the medal is Rs 60,000.
How much silver does an Olympics silver medal contain?
A silver medal weighs 550 grams, and it is made of pure silver. Going by the silver price on August 2 (Rs 68 per gram in Kochi), the value of the medal in India is Rs 37,400.
What are the ingredients of an Olympics bronze medal?
An Olympics bronze medal contains red brass, which is 95 per cent copper and 5 per cent zinc.
Then why do Olympics medals fetch more money during auctions?
People attach a lot of value to Olympics medals. For example, an Olympic gold medal won by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Games was sold for a record $1.46m ($1,466,574 to be precise, more than Rs 10 crore) in an auction in California in 2013. It was the highest price ever for a piece of Olympic memorabilia. Owens was a Black American Athlete, who had won gold in the 100m and 200m, 400m relay and long jump at the Games attended by Adolf Hitler.
What are the features of an Olympics medal?
Five Olympic rings, the official name of the games and Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, are embossed on each medal, which comes with a wood case.
What is unique about Tokyo Olympics medals?
The metals required to produce approximately 5,000 gold, silver and bronze medals for 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were extracted from discarded mobile phones and laptops. The Olympics Organising Committee had organised a two-year campaign to collect the used electronic devices from April, 2017, to March, 2019.
