Why Olympic athletes are still biting their medals in 2024, explained

There's a reason behind this.

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Have you noticed athletes continuing to bite their medals? Even in 2024? Here’s an Olympics edition which will hopefully answer a question you might have.

This is a thing for every Olympics: whenever anyone wins a medal, whether it’s gold, silver or bronze, there are pictures of the winners biting the thing.

If you’re wondering what the deal with that is, that’s what this post is for. Let’s dive in to the tradition and why athletes are still doing it in 2024, even though this is a very old thing.

Wait, this is STILL a thing to bite a medal?

Sure is!

CHATEAUROUX, FRANCE – JULY 27: Silver medalist Jihyeon Keum of Team Republic of Korea bites her medal on the podium during the Shooting medal ceremony after the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team on day one of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Chateauroux Shooting Centre on July 27, 2024 in Chateauroux, France. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

But why do Olympic athletes bite their medals?

I can say for sure that they’re not eating them.

In all seriousness, this comes from when people used to mine gold. They would bite when they found gold. If it was soft, the bite would leave a mark. If it wasn’t, no bite mark!

So are Olympians checking to see if the medal is real gold, silver or bronze?

(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

No. But it’s a tradition and the photos are always great. From CNN in 2012:

But why do athletes feign chomping on their prized medallions, anyway?

Most likely to satisfy the pose-hungry media, says David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. There are only so many things to do with a medal, and the excited champions are usually appeasing requests from the gallery of Olympic photographers when they bite down on their booty.

There’s your answer!