THE VALUE OF AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL

THE REAL DEAL

“At the Olympics you don’t win the silver, you missed the Gold medal” – Anonymous.

The statement above aptly described the value that is attached to the Olympic gold medal even when the first paragraph of the Olympic creed reads

“The most important thing at the Olympics is not to win but to take part” but the way an Olympic gold medal winner is being celebrated, honored and adored,No serious athlete will consider just to take part” ahead of winning and not just winning any of the medal but the real deal, THE GOLD MEDAL.

            The podium value of the Gold medal cannot be quantified, it signifies honor, fulfillment, the fan celebrate and worship the winner demy god, the paparazzi, from the media and press interview are directed at them, even the government and cooperate bodies see them as a brand that can improve the country image or the cooperate body’s image and patronage all the social and commercial endorsement comes their way.

            The symbolic value attached to this precious round metal by the winner is even more than that of the fan, government or cooperate organization because the satisfaction derived from achieving such feat is priceless, an extra ordinary performance of few seconds has transform an ordinary athlete into hero or heroine overnight. It was written in the history book that some winners of the ancient Olympic Games were rewarded with free food for life, free housing for life, erection of their status e.t.c, and thousands of dollars were given to the winners as rewards in the modern Olympic Games.

            The Gold medal presently have 1.5% of gold in content and that account for 6grams of the total weight of the medal and that alone worth over 600 dollars at current market price while 92.5% of the medal is silver and copper make up the remaining 6% they both weight 400gram and cost over 1200 dollars at current price but Aside this economic value the glory and honor that go with medal has make the resale of the medals hard to come by, and when they are rarely put up for sale the massive rush for the object is unprecedented for example: Mark well, a member of the 1980 American hockey, auction his Gold medal in 2010 for 310,700 dollars.

            The ultimate value lies in what athlete put into winning and not what the athlete get from it. It takes many years of dreams, practice, patience, diligence, courage, believe, dedication, fairness and truthfulness to achieve an overnight success. A victory gotten from hard work and culmination of one’s effort is a great delight to the mind and not one anchored on ding cheat.

            As we countdown to the beginning of another Olympic, the athletes are on the practicing field rearing to go and “not to just take part” but to go for the GOLD.