I’m sure Germany‘s Alexander Grimm, gold medalist in the Olympic Kayak K1, isn’t the first one to bite his gold medal in Beijing but this is the first photo I saw of a medal biter. It’s good to know that the good old tradition of Olympic medal biting is alive and well and won’t go the way of the dodo.
But why do athletes bite their medals? Apparently to test their authenticity. The good guys at Slate Magazine will tell you however that the Olympic gold medals aren’t really made of gold but are made of gold-plated silver.
Photo source: shaun botterill/beijing2008
