{"id":259072,"date":"2024-08-14T12:09:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T10:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tapasmagazine.es\/por-que-los-ganadores-olimpicos-muerden-sus-medallas\/"},"modified":"2024-08-14T12:12:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T10:12:33","slug":"why-olympic-winners-bite-their-medals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tapasmagazine.es\/en\/why-olympic-winners-bite-their-medals\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Olympic winners bite their medals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Spanish version.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos of athletes posing on the podium with their medals in their teeth are portrayed as some of the most memorable images of the Olympic Games<\/strong>. From Michael Phelps<\/strong> to Usain Bolt <\/strong>to Simone Biles <\/strong>they pretend to bite their medals, but why exactly do they do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is said that this practice could be linked to the athletes’ verification that the medals were authentic. Although the International Olympic Committee<\/strong> (IOC) stopped awarding pure gold medals in 1912, so it may not have much to do with it today.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What is not entirely clear is when Olympians adopted this practice, but amateur historians believe it began in the late 1980s or early 1990s. One of the earliest photographs of the bite is of Canadian skater Elizabeth Manley<\/strong> at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, much of the medals are carved from sterling silver and recycled silver, so most Olympians participate in the ritual for symbolic or traditional reasons, although many think photographers encourage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photographers seem to be the main drivers of this act. ‘It’s become an obsession for photographers,’ David Wallechinsky<\/strong>, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, tells CNN*. ‘These consider the pose with the medal to be the photo that can make the front pages of newspapers or media the next day, and therefore ask athletes to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to read the Spanish version. Photos of athletes posing on the podium with their medals in their teeth are portrayed as some of the most memorable images of the Olympic Games. From Michael Phelps to Usain Bolt to Simone Biles they pretend to bite their medals, but why exactly do they do it? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":285,"featured_media":259068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16002],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportajes-en","cat-16002-id"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Olympic winners bite their medals - Tapas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Click here to read the Spanish version. 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