Paris Olympics 2024 kickstarted with a grand opening ceremony that featured performances of Hollywood icons Lady Gaga & Celine Dion. Apart from the grand opening ceremony, Paris Olympics 2024 features a first-of-its-kind floating parade of nations rather than the traditional parade. To be precise, participating nations boarded a ship and waved to fans while holding their nation's national flag. To be precise, more than 10,000 athletes sailed across the Seine River in a 3.5-mile parade on Friday, kicking off the 2024 Paris Games with a spectacular open-air ceremony that showed off the exuberance of this year's competitors and the majesty of the surrounding French landmarks. With the Paris Olympics finally underway, there are common questions that are not so common that may want to know.
Why do winning athletes bite their medals?
Historically, gold medals were made up of pure gold and to test its authenticity, sportspersons used to bite their medal while celebrating their triumphs. For those who are unaware, when someone bites a gold medal, it leaves marks on their teeth, making it easier for them to test its purity.
For the past many years, the Olympics has stopped producing pure gold medals, but the tradition still prevails. In the current era, the Olympians also do that for clicking pictures. It allows them to make engaging and intriguing poses compared to just smiling for the cameras. Photographers too encouraged the winners to perpetuate the tradition. It means biting medals after winning in the current times is nothing but to add drama & emotions during photo sessions.
How pure is the Olympic gold medal?
As per reports, since 1912, Olympic medals have been made from less valuable materials and only coated with gold. The last time pure gold medals were used was during the 1912 Stockholm Games. The current guidelines prescribed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) say that gold medals should contain a minimum of six grams of 24-carat gold. What forms the bulk of the medal (210g) is silver. Also, the bronze medals are made of copper, zinc, tin, and a very small amount of silver.
Talking about the Olympic medal size, the guidelines suggest that it should be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick.
Coming back to the Paris Olympics, it was officially kicked off on Friday, July 26. However, India's Paris Olympics 2024 schedule was started a day earlier with archery on July 25. As per reports, a total of 10,000 athletes across 206 National Olympic Committees are participating in the Paris Games 2024. India too has sent a strong 117-member contingent who will represent the tricolour in Paris and look to surpass their previous best medal tally that came during the Tokyo Olympics 2020.