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How much 2024 Paris Olympics gold medals are really worth

Home> News> Sport

Updated 13:42 29 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 17:24 28 Jul 2024 GMT+1

How much 2024 Paris Olympics gold medals are really worth

Winning gold is every Olympic athlete's dream - but what is the numerical value of the top prize?

Tom Earnshaw

Tom Earnshaw

Winning an Olympic gold medal is the pinnacle for every athlete who gets the privilege of competing at the sporting event - but its numerical worth may shock you.

Held every four years, the two-and-a-half week event pits thousands of athletes against each other in a battle to see who is the best in their respective discipline.

From boxing to javelin and shooting to equestrian, it has something for everyone and very often, you'll end up falling in love with something you've never really given the time of day before.

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But for the athletes that win gold, what are they actually getting their hands on? And how much are they worth?

A gold medal? Kind of but not quite

If the subheading didn't give it away, the gold medals won by athletes aren't actually gold despite the colour they give off.

And for the 2024 Paris Olympics, there will be an extra addition to the standard make up.

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An Olympic gold medal is in fact required to be made from at lest 92.5 percent silver. Talk about plot twist.

Every medal only has to have six grams of gold.

In contrast, the silver and bronze medals are both fully solid in their respective metals.

A piece of history (OCTAVIO JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
A piece of history (OCTAVIO JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

How much are Olympic gold medals worth?

Last time around at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, you were looking at around £540 for a gold medal.

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The silvers were worth £297 whereas the bronze were a fiver. No, we're not joking.

Made up of copper and zinc, it's an extremely common metal.

There is some variation, with NBC Sports reporting the golds can go for up to $850 (£655). Ultimately, though, that is based on the metals they are made out of rather than what they represent.

Historic medals have sold for incredible amounts. Back in 2013, one of Jesse Owen's golds from the 1936 Berlin Olympics - that he won in front of Adolf Hitler - sold for a mega $1.46 million (£1.13 million).

The 2024 gold (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)
The 2024 gold (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)

2024 Olympic medals

The design for this year's Olympic medals is pretty unique.

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Hexagonal in design, they will have an iron sculpture of the Eiffel Tower on top of the medal - weighing an additional 18 grams - to represent the city in which the games are being held.

Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organising committee, said: "Having a gold medal is already something incredible. But we wanted to add this French touch and we thought that the Eiffel Tower would be this cherry on top.

"Having a piece of it is a piece of history."

Featured Image Credit: BERTRAND GUAY/OCTAVIO JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Topics: Olympics, Sport, Money, World News

Tom Earnshaw
Tom Earnshaw

Tom joined LADbible Group in 2024, currently working as SEO Lead across all brands including LADbible, UNILAD, SPORTbible, Tyla, UNILAD Tech, and GAMINGbible. He moved to the company from Reach plc where he enjoyed spells as a content editor and senior reporter for one of the country's most-read local news brands, LancsLive. When he's not in work, Tom spends his adult life as a suffering Manchester United supporter after a childhood filled with trebles and Premier League titles. You can't have it all forever, I suppose.

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@TREarnshaw

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