The upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo are drawing attention due to skyrocketing gold prices, making the Olympic gold medals some of the most valuable ever.
The 2026 Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics have gained significant attention because of soaring gold prices, which have reportedly increased by 107% since the Paris Summer Olympics. This price surge means that the athletes receiving medals in the upcoming games will wear the 'most expensive' gold medals ever made. Interestingly, however, modern Olympic gold medals are not made of pure gold; each medal weighs 506 grams, but only about 6 grams of it is composed of pure gold, with the remainder being silver. This has led to criticisms referring to them as 'fake gold medals.'
Historically, the Olympic gold medals were made from pure gold until the early 20th century. Specifically, the Olympic Games in St. Louis (1904) and London (1908) awarded pure gold medals to individual champions. Since the 1912 Olympics, the gold medals have been made from silver with a thin layer of gold plating. Although the medals produced in those early years consisted of a higher gold content, they have now transformed into the current practice of applying just a minimal amount of gold to silver medals. It's also noteworthy that pure gold medals were only awarded in a handful of instances, making them incredibly rare today.
For instance, at the inaugural Athens Olympics in 1896, no gold medals were awarded. The 1900 Paris Olympics did not follow the standardization of medals we see today and did not offer pure gold medals either. The rarity of pure gold medals is further highlighted by their historical weights, which were significantly lower than today's medals. Estimates suggest that a historical pure gold medal might have been worth around 530 USD at that time when adjusted for inflation, but today the value of such medals, particularly for collectors, stretches into the tens of thousands of dollars. The steep rise in gold prices means that these medals, despite being partially gold, carry immense financial and sentimental value, as seen when a gold medal from the St. Louis Olympics sold for approximately 800,000,000 KRW at auction.
