It’s the ultimate photo op, but just how far back does this Olympic tradition go?
Brotherhood, unity, peace and understanding among nations. The lofty ideals of the Olympic Games offer all of us the chance to gather in the spirit of their aspirational values while we watch the world’s best athletes showcase the power and beauty of the human body and spirit. And if we just so happen to cheer for our home country, and our home country just so happens to win a whole bunch of medals, all the better. Right?
All right, let’s be honest: The Olympics are really all about the medals. There’s nothing better than watching your country’s medal count tick up, the joyful faces of champions filling your screen as they bite down on a gold medal for all the world to see. It’s the ubiquitous Olympics image, easy to conjure up in your mind’s eye.
But … why do they do that? And has the tradition of biting an Olympic gold medal always been part of the Games? It seems logical that this tradition goes way back. After all, so much of the Games is rooted in ancient times, from the lighting of the torch to the reason the Games are held every four years. And, a little more recently, didn’t prospectors and gun-toters in the Wild West test their gold by biting it? Real, solid gold should dent with teeth marks because it’s a soft metal. The modern Olympic Games have been running since 1896, so that timing lines up.
Those are all interesting theories, but that doesn’t mean they’re accurate! Read on to find out the true story behind this iconic chomp.
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Why do winning athletes bite their gold medals?
We’re sorry to break the news to you, but athletes aren’t testing the quality of the gold by seeing if their teeth will make a dent in it. This is one of those facts that people think are true but really aren’t. Photographers came up with this pose for a photo op, and it stuck!
“Shutterbugs consider the medal biting pose to be the shot that can make it to the front page of next day’s newspaper and hence request the athletes to do so,” according to the International Olympics Committee (IOC). And they’re not wrong about that day-after cover shot.
When did this quirky tradition start?
Believe it or not, the practice only started in the late 1980s or early 1990s—a full century or so after the resurgence of the Olympics and definitely nowhere near ancient times (no matter what Gen Alpha may say). The 1991 British Men’s 4x100m is often credited as “the” moment where winners were photographed biting their medals and the practice took off. But that happened at the World Championship, not the Olympics.
However, in the year 2026, it’s undeniable that the pose is anything less than iconic, firmly cemented in our visual history and in our expectations for victorious athletes anywhere there’s a medal ceremony, including the Olympics.
Are Olympic gold medals actually made out of gold?
Here’s a little tidbit for your next trivia night: Olympic medals have been made out of solid gold only three times in Olympic history: the 1904, 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games. The onset of World War I in 1914 increased the cost of gold in the global market, and various events across the 20th century (including World War II) created a persistent increase in cost. As a result, since the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, medals have all been alloys. The IOC does have regulations for this, though. Gold medals must be made of at least 92.5% silver and then plated with gold.
Although the percentage of silver and gold plate in the medals is mandated by the IOC, medals are “the responsibility of the organizing committees … to pay for out of [funds] they’re given by the IOC,” says Robert Barney, professor emeritus and founding director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University. As a result, he explains, there’s no standard medal designer; the design is typically chosen through a competition held well in advance of the Games.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, medals were even set with a piece of original iron from the Eiffel Tower, which demonstrates not only the originality of design showcased at the Games but also the use of various metals to fashion the medals.
If they’re not actually made of gold, why does the tradition persist?
Much like the start of the tradition, its continuation seems to be driven by photographer requests, as well as by the athletes themselves. Like “going to Disney World” after winning the Super Bowl, pretending to bite your gold medal has been a hard-earned victory lap for champions since the early 1990s.
Will the medals from Italy have any special features?
As noted above, each country puts its own spin on its Olympic medals. For the 2026 Games, the medal will represent “the element of magic … a dream that all athletes carry within them,” according to Rafaella Panié, the director of Brand, Identity and the Look of the Games for Milano Cortina.
Each of the Milano Cortina medals is two-sided, of course, but each side is also divided into two halves, symbolizing the individuality of the athlete on one side and the role of the team on the other. Each half also has its own unique texture and a sloping design that can reflect light, which symbolizes the “dynamism of Milano Cortina and Italy.”
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Sources:
- Bob Barney, PhD, founding director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies and professor emeritus at the School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Western University; phone interview, Jan. 19, 2026
- Olympics.com: “Explained – Why Olympic winners bite their medals”
- Champions Athletics Speakers: “Why do athletes bite their medals?”
- NPR: “How much gold is in an Olympic gold medal? Not as much as you’d think”
- Olympics.com: “Behind the scenes: how the medals for the Milano Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Games were created”
