So why are they doing it?
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However, if someone was hoping to discover whether their gold medal was pure gold, their smiles would quickly fade, since Olympic gold medals are actually just 1.34% gold.
Several athletes wouldn’t do it if they weren’t asked.
There are actually a few reasons, but the most obvious one is that it’s a pose photographers really like to capture.
“It’s become an obsession with the photographers”, David Wallechinsky, co-author of The Complete Book of the Olympics told CNN.
“There are groups of photographers, they’re always like, “Natalie, Natalie, Natalie – do it, do it, ‘” said Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin”.
He added: “I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell”.
The practice of biting down on medals dates back to when athletes wanted to ascertain the authenticity of their medals.
While some might think it’s because they are tasting their success and others might assume its to see if the medal is real, it is actually because the of the photographers, according to CNN.
That isn’t really a useful indicator any more, though. DeMarco says the materials that make up a “gold” medal are worth $564. Today, gold medals are nearly entirely silver – more than 95 percent, to be specific (If the Olympics were to make gold medals entirely of gold at the current weight, each medal would require more than $21,000 worth of metal).
United States’ Simone Biles bites her gold medal for the artistic gymnastics women’s individual all-around final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
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All winning athletes also receive a standard US$25,000 cheque, which in INR translates to over 15lakh; a small prize, perhaps, in comparison to the fruit of years of hard work and effort that has brought them to the level they are at.
