Why Olympic gold medalist bite their metals when taking pictures

[look 171]

What's the deal? I have seen two random pics of this in the papers

[Holger]

I think former you could determine if a coin was real gold by biting it, gold has a certain softness(?).
This gesture was brought over to medals, and not only the gold medal.

Or?

[sc_rufctr]

It's tradition. I first saw it at the Moscow Olympics.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by Holger

I think former you could determine if a coin was real gold by biting it, gold has a certain softness(?).
This gesture was brought over to medals, and not only the gold medal.

Or?

Yes, essentially that's it^^.

When gold was used as coins, going back hundreds of years, counterfeiters were busy faking them, usually by alloying the gold with base metals to produce more coins from a single one. It was common practice for people to bite the coin to determine it was real gold, due to it's softness in it's relatively "pure" state when used as coins. The gesture became a traditional demonstration of checking authenticity of coins which, later, became a symbolic gesture and now a humorous gesture. I've even seen actors do it to the Oscar.

[Gogar]

to get to the tasty chocolate inside

[IROC]

I thought it was done in homage to Underdog...

[Pazuzu]

They dip the Gold medals in anti-doping chemicals, so the winners taste them, get the chemicals in their system, then pass the post-event drug tests. The losers don't get that chance...