Nine things you never knew about the 2016 Rio Olympic medals
– For starters the gold Rio Olympic medal are not fully made of gold
– Paralympics gold medals will contain steel balls because of the visually impaired
– Michael Phelps has the all-time record with 23 gold medals
With the Rio Olympics just half way completed, many medals have been won and many more are going to be won.
The USA led the medals table with the likes of China, Russia not far behind.
The 2016 Rio Olympics medals table as at 1pm, August 16
Nigeria is yet to win a medal at the games though but it is expected Team Nigeria will return to the country with medals.
What what are those medals really made of? below are the 9 things about the 2016 Rio Olympics medals you do not know;
1. A gold medal gilded with the minimum six grams of pure gold – as stipulated by the International Olympic Committee – would be worth just over £200 in scrap metal, according to the latest gold prices from the London Bullion Market Association.
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2. Each gold medal weighs 500-grams and all are at least 92.5 per cent recycled silver. They contain just 1 per cent gold. The last time Olympic medals were made of pure gold was at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.
3. Each medal takes two days to make. Brazil’s National Mint – located in Rio – has had an 80-strong team working round the clock to make the 5,130 Olympic and Paralympic medals.
4. The silver used in the Rio gold medals has been recycled from mirrors and X-ray plates.
5. The Olympic Motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’) does not appear Summer Games medals. It has featured on four Winter Games medals, though.
6. Summer Games medals are traditionally smaller, lighter and thinner than those presented at Winter Games.
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7. Michael Phelps has the all-time record with 23 gold medals. Ex-Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina holds the women’s record with nine.
8. Team GB is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Games since the first was held in 1896.
9. The Paralympics gold medals will contain small steel balls to help visually impaired athletes identity them.
Facts gotten via The Mirror UK.
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