With the Olympics on I wondered how much one would sell for given a lot of these events don’t have a lot of options of making a living unfortunately.
The article is from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics so pricing might not be exact but:
At today’s prices that means the gold medal would be worth around $800 if you melted it down, while the silver would be worth about $450 and the bronze around $5.
That’s just the worth of the metals, the fact that it’s an Olympic medal means it’ll sell more but it varies a lot based on the year and event which make sense.
Earlier this month a winner’s medal from the 1896 Athens Olympics sold for $180,000 at auction, Cuban shooter Leuris Pupo’s gold medal from the London 2012 Olympics fetched $73,200, and his compatriot Iván Pedroso’s long jump gold medal from Sydney 2000 went for $71,335. All three were sold by Boston-based RR Auction.
I’d think they’d only do it if they really needed the money since it is a huge achievement.
This article mentions that this year the track events have a prize and boxing has one too. Sounds like some countries programs also provide prize money for medal winners.
Endorsements happen a lot too.
Also charity