Dave’s Diary: Going for the Gold? Guess Again!

The blood, sweat and tears of a lifetime can come down to one one-hundreth of a second during the Olympic games. All that effort, all that sacrifice in pursuit of the gold medal… which we now know is really mostly silver. What’s up with that?  CNNMoney reports that Olympic gold medals are made up of only 1.34 percent gold, with the rest comprised of 93 percent silver and 6 percent copper. Copper? Sure copper has some value. Meth heads climb power poles to steal copper!  But really, copper? Look, if you want copper you go for third place and the bronze medal. 

Excellence demands “gold” doesn’t it? Melted down, a gold medal’s materials would be worth about $650. The silver medal, which is 93 percent silver and 7 percent copper, would fetch about $335, and the bronze medal, which is mostly made of copper, would be worth less than $5. But where have I been? After all, it’s been an even 100 years since athletes have gone for the real gold. The Olympic Games haven't awarded solid gold medals since the 1912 summer games in Stockholm, Sweden.