A gold rush is a discovery of gold at a location that leads to several miners rushing to that destination to seek fortune.
Several major gold rushes happened in the 19th century in Australia, NZ, South America, and North America in the 19th century.
In those days, people didn’t have sophisticated technology to test the purity of the metal.
So, one way to see if the metal was pure or not was to sink one’s teeth into the metal (if it bends, it is pure).
The modern Olympic Games started in 1896, but gold medals were first introduced in 1904.
In the Olympic Games in 1904, 1908, and 1912, competitors were awarded medals made of real goldIn 1912, the average price for one ounce of gold was roughly $18.93, and the weight of the 1912 Stockholm Olympic gold medal was about 24g (0.85 ounces), silver, and bronze.
While no one knows the real reason for players biting their medals, it could be that one of the winners jokingly sank his/her teeth during one of these three Olympic Games to hint at testing the purity of the metal(s).
Or it could be at any Olympic Games after 1912 (the last time an Olympic medal was made entirely out of gold), and someone might have done it to take a dig at the mere gold finish that the medals have been having since then.
Today, gold medals are made up mostly of silver with just 1.34% gold that is used to give the medal a cosmetic gold finish.
Many journalists have tried to get an answer from the players, but players suggest they bite their medals because the media photographers ask them to do it.
It is considered an iconic shot, and this practice has now gone far beyond the Olympics and is no longer restricted to medals only—Rafael Nadal was seen biting his Italian Open trophy recently.
