The record for the cost of a gold medal at the 1936 Summer Games has stood for 13 years // Photo: winnipegfreepress.com
Despite this, Olympic gold medals have significantly increased in value compared to the previous Games due to the soaring price of the precious metal. Since the last Olympics in February 2022, gold has risen in price by more than $3,000 per troy ounce, or 165%. At the close of trading on February 10, gold was selling for $5.025 per troy ounce.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires organizers to prepare gold medals for the Games, at least 92.5% consisting of silver. At the Olympics in Italy, top medals consist of 500 grams of silver plated with six grams of pure gold. Silver medals contain 500 grams of silver and bronze medals contain 500 grams of bronze.
“The “correct value” of an Olympic gold medal at current prices is about $2,500. But, as Robert Eaton, an expert on Olympic memorabilia, told CBS News (USA), athletes could eventually sell the medals at auction prices and realize $50,000 to $80,000.
Record price of an Olympic medal
The great historical value of the awards has led Olympic champions to sell their medals for a much higher price. For example, American track and field athlete Jesse Owens sold one of the four gold medals won at the 1936 Olympics at auction in 2013 for a record $1.47 million. This record still stands.
There are known cases of forced sale of Olympic awards. Diver, American Greg Louganis is a five-time Olympic champion and silver medalist at the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Summer Games. Last year, one of his gold medals went under the hammer for $200,000. The silver medal he sold for $30,000. He explained his decision to part with the medals by the fact that financially suffered greatly from the devastating fires in the state of California (USA).
Another American, six-time Olympic swimming champion Ryan Lochte earlier this year sold at auction three gold medals for almost $400 thousand. The reason was the accumulated debt Lochte, which is estimated at $270 thousand, of which about $100 thousand – unpaid taxes for 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, he auctioned off six of his medals – three silver and three bronze – to raise money for a children’s charity organization.
