Gold Price and Olympic Medals Reach Record High
Olympic Gold Medals: More Valuable Than Ever
With the closing of the Paris Olympics, athletes who have won the gold medal can now boast the possession of a treasure that has never been so valuable.
The correlation between the price of gold bars and the value of the most coveted medal makes these Olympic Games truly historic.
In fact, the raw materials used to make the coveted prize can be worth around $900 each.
Even taking inflation into account, the value of the medals remains the highest ever, with Olympic athletes benefiting from both the sharp rise in gold prices and increasingly expensive medals.
How much are they worth, thanks to the surge in gold?
Record-breaking Olympics Thanks to the Price of Gold: Most Precious Medals Ever
According to assessments by Bloomberg analysts, Olympic medals contain six grams of gold.
The price of the metal reached a record high in mid-July, thanks to purchases by central banks, retailer interest in China, and expectations of easing US monetary policy.
Prices are also significantly higher this year for silver, which makes up at least 92.5% of the weight of gold medals.
Combining these factors results in an unprecedented high value.
In reality, Olympic athletes hold their medals dear as a symbol of a historic achievement and tend not to melt them down or sell them for money.
More profitable are the gifts that countries give to winning athletes, which include money, exemptions from military service, and apartments.
Furthermore, the value of a medal can increase over time and be worth more than the metal price.
One of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he defied Adolf Hitler’s attempt to showcase Aryan racial supremacy, was sold at auction in 2013 for almost $1.5 million.
