OLD OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS WERE TRUE GOLD
By JAMES A. MARPLES
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A gold medal awarded at the 1904 Olympics hosted at St. Louis was recently sold at auction for $545,371. It bears the inscription “Olympiad, 1904” and shows a victorious athlete holding a wreath on the front. On the other side, Nike, the goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology, is shown alongside Zeus.
Back then, Olympic gold medals were smaller and made mostly of gold. It is sort of sad that today’s modern day Olympic gold medals are larger (which is sadly only appealing to the eye). As far as “worth”, modern medals are mostly made from silver with gold-plating.
If I were an athlete, I’d much rather prefer the genuine old type that was genuinely a “Gold Medal”. It would more honorably symbolize “excellence”.