How Much for that Olympic Medal?

How Much is that Olympic Medal Worth? That all depends on your perspective: Meltdown Value Gold: $644 (92.5% silver with a bit of copper mixed in for strength, and gilded in approx. 6 grams of 24k gold) Silver: $330 (same composition as gold medal, without the gold) Bronze: Less than $5 (mostly copper, with a bit of zinc and tin- basically a giant penny) And what if that gold medal were actually made entirely of 24k gold? Then it would be worth about $22,000. (There have not been solid gold medals since the 1912 Stockholm Games.) Incentive Value As many as 204 National Olympic Committees provide financial incentives to athletes for each gold medal earned: Singapore (which has never won gold at the Olympics) is offering $800,000 per gold medal The United States: $25,000 Australia: $20,900 (with added incentive of being featured on an Australia stamp and getting a flight upgrade home) Russia: $135,000 Italy: $182,000 China: approx. $51,000 (although China has not officially released financial incentives details) India: promises coaching jobs to athletes who win medals British athletes, however, will have to settle for national glory and their image on a stamp rather than cash Marketing Value There are many factors involved in a company selecting an athlete endorser: sport (swimming, track and field, and gymnastics attract the most interest), multiple wins, name and face recognition, likeable personality, etc. Some gold medal athletes at London can expect over the four years to Rio 2016 to earn into the 7 figures from product endorsement deals. Speedo awarded Michael Phelps a $1 million bonus for breaking Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven gold medals in single Olympic events, and Usain Bolt received a $1.8 million bonus from his sponsor Digicel for breaking the 100 meter race world record. Resale Value The current world record price for an Olympic medal was achieved in November 2010 when a gold won by Mark Wells, a member of the 1980 “miracle on ice” U.S. men’s hockey team, was sold for $310,700. It was the first time any of the 1980 hockey gold medals were offered at a public auction. Humanitarian Value Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko sold his medal from the 1996 Atlanta Games for $1 million in March this year with the funds going to the Klitschko Brothers Foundation which promotes sports among children. Immediately after the sale, the buyer returned the medal to Wladimir as a token of respect, because he wanted the medal to remain in the Klitschko family. Athletic Value Priceless.