Olympic medal value soars 300% ahead of Winter Olympics
The value of Olympic medals has surged by 300% due to rising metal prices, with gold medals now worth approximately R35,700, silver R20,755, and bronze R88.12, impacting the total production cost of 1,146 medals for the Winter Olympics in Milan. Picture: ANDREA PATTARO / AFP
Image: ANDREA PATTARO / AFP
In an interesting economic development, the price of metals has driven up the worth of Olympic medals by around 300%, and with the Olympic Winter Games starting in Milan, Italy, on Friday.
That means the five South African athletes competing at the quadrennial showpiece will have a chance at winning a much more valuable prize - even if the sentimental value would still far outweigh the monetary amount.
However, the rise in value of gold and silver, and to a much lesser degree, bronze has driven up the total cost to produce medals for all the events.
Individually, the medals themselves are not worth as much as you would expect, as a gold will be worth roughly R35,700, a silver R20,755, while the bronze will pale in comparison at R88.12.
Composition of the Medals
The reason for the stark difference for bronze is that both the other medals are made up of primarily silver - with the gold simply coated with a small amount of gold on the surface.
In fact, the silver and gold medals are identical in composition but for the 6 grams of gold on the surface of the first-place prize.
While the monetary value of the medals is nowhere near the real value of winning an Olympic event, the cost increase is significant for the organisers.
That’s because there will be 382 events, which means 1,146 medals will be provided in total.
The cost works out to R13,6m for the gold medals, R7,9m for the silvers, and R33,661 for the relatively cheap bronze medals.