Ferret’s history corner

[Lucy]

awww maaaaaan! I missed the annual Cooper's Hill cheese rolling races this year

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-england-gloucestershire-69065807

 

[Lucy]

O.K. Well here's something else I just learned about. The Odessa Catacombs.....

 

[Lucy]

Today I learned...... "Why do the Olympic athletes bite their medals?"

History says that, during the early days, traders bit their gold coins to check its authenticity when the precious metal was used as a form of currency. Gold is a soft metal which dents under slight stress and leaves a mark when gnawed.

However, it’s safe to say that the Olympic champions are not checking for the purity of their medals when they pose for the photos with the metal disc in their mouths.
Moreover, since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stopped awarding pure gold medals in 1912, it is definitely not the reason.

Then why do Olympic winners still bite their medals?
Because the photographers ask them to. “It’s become an obsession with the photographers,” David Wallechinsky, president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, told CNN*.*
Shutterbugs consider the medal biting pose to be the shot that can make it to the front page of next day’s newspaper and hence request the athletes to do so.

Info: https://olympics.com/en/news/olympic-winners-athlete-bite-medal