Ever Wondered Why Olympic Athletes Bite Their Medals While Posing For Photographs?

They say winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing. And what makes victory sweeter? The way you celebrate it. With every passing tournament, celebrations have evolved but there is one thing that has not changed over the years. The tradition of athletes, biting their medals while posing for photographs. Ever wondered why they do that?

The simple reason is that it has become an obsession for the photographers and they force the athletes to bite their medals while posing. David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, states the reason as,

“I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell. I don’t think it’s something the athletes would probably do on their own.”

Photographer be like: Bite please!!!

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Here is the Great Britain track-and-field team of 1991 posing.

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If you thought this is just a tradition with no history, you are mistaken. Back in the day, it was a tradition to authenticate precious metals. Since solid gold is a softer metal, biting down on it would leave tooth impressions.



However, an interesting fact here is that this year’s medals contain a mere 1.34 per cent of gold. The gold medal contains mostly silver. So biting them now won’t make much sense in authenticating the metal.

In 2010, German luger David Moeller was left with a broken tooth when he tried to bite his silver medal. 

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Logic, history and glamour combines this tradition and it looks likely to continue for long. Till, then…

Chocolates, anyone?

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Source:BeingHuman

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