Olympic winners, also gold, mainly get silver | Financial

If the winning slice of 500 grams was completely gold, contenders for Olympic gold such as Sifan Hassan, Anna van den Breggen or Mathieu van der Poel would receive €24,570 with it.

In 1904 the very first gold medal, a much smaller version of the current medal, was awarded to winners of the Olympic Games. “The gold was considered too expensive for that,” according to Guinness World Records. “The winner of a competition received a silver medal, runner-up a bronze. There was no medal for third place.”

The last time an Olympian received such an all-gold medal was in 1912, during the Summer Games in Sweden. Since then, the medals, which are largely cast in silver, have been covered with 6 grams of gold. This weight now yields around €300. The silver of the core is going for €21.40 per gram.

In addition to the medal, winning athletes receive a bonus from the Dutch sports umbrella organization NOC*NSF: €30,000 for gold, €22,500 for silver and €15,000 in bronze.

Auctions

Some athletes cashed in on their memorable record. In that case, buyers mainly pay for the emotional or historical value. According to Guinness World Records, the medal won by American athlete Jesse Owens in Berlin in 1936 has proven to be the most expensive. Ron Burkle, owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey club, stole the gold at auction in 2013 for $1.46 million.

There are bids on medals that athletes still own. They are approached for their medals during memorable Olympic editions: A silver medal from the 1972 Olympics, when members of the Israeli athletics team were murdered, would raise $6000. A gold medal from the 2004 Athens Games – the 25th volume – would bring in $16,500.

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