The medals athletes win during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan could be far more valuable than in past games because of soaring gold and silver prices.
Olympic gold medals are no longer made of solid gold. The last time a pure gold medal was awarded was at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, Bobby Eaton, an Olympics memorabilia expert at Boston-based RR Auction, told CBS News. Now, the International Olympic Committee only requires that gold medals consist of at least 92.5% silver, according to IOC guidelines.
Olympic gold medals today are composed of 500 grams of silver plated with six grams of pure gold. Silver medals contain 500 grams of silver and no gold plating. Bronze medals are solid bronze.
At current precious metal prices and based solely on the mineral contents, the so-called “melt value” of an Olympic gold medal is around $2,500.
On Tuesday, the price of gold rose to $5,054 per ounce. Six grams is equal to 0.2 ounces, giving the gold contained in the Winter Olympic medals a precise value of $1,011. At $83 an ounce, the silver contained in a gold medal is worth about $1,463. That would make a gold medal worth $2,474 based only on the value of its components.
Gold prices soared to record highs last month, surpassing $5,000 for the first time, as investors flocked to the precious metal to hedge against risks stemming from geopolitical uncertainty and rising global debt. A decade ago, gold traded for between $1,200 and $1,300 per ounce.
Athletes who sold medals
Of course, Olympic medals typically have a far greater financial value because of their historical significance and collectability. If an athlete were to try to sell their medal soon after the games, they could fetch between $50,000 and $80,000, Eaton told CBS News.
“There is a discrepancy between the melt value and actual collectible value,” he said.
While most Olympic athletes hold on to their hard-earned medals, some prize winners resell them for prices that can reflect their prestige and significance. In 2013, one of four gold medals won by U.S. track and field athlete Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin was auctioned for $1.47 million — a record for an Olympic medal, according to SCP Auctions, which handled the sale.
Greg Louganis, the famed American diver who won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Olympics, also parted ways with three of his five medals. In 2025, his Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics gold medal for 10-meter platform diving sold for over $200,000, according to RR Auction, which handled the sale.
Louganis’s Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics gold medal for 3-meter springboard diving sold for just under $200,000, while his Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics silver medal for the 10-meter platform event sold for more than $30,000. The medal sales allowed Louganis to move to Panama, Eaton, who handled the sale, told CBS News.
“He said the money he got from selling his medals let him start his life back up again so he could do what he wanted to do,” Eaton said.
More recently, swimming champ Ryan Lochte in 2022 auctioned six of his medals — three silver, three bronze — to raise money for a children’s charity. Over four Olympics, he won a total of 12 medals, including six gold.
“I’m not one to be all sentimental about medals,” Lochte told The Associated Press at the time. “My medals are just sitting in my closet collecting dust. The memories that I have is what means the most.”
Handle with care
This year’s medals are drawing attention for another reason that could presumably take some of the shine off. The Olympics Organizing Committee said it is investigating an “issue affecting a small number” of the prizes after some athletes complained that their medals had broken.
“Don’t jump in them,” Breezy Johnson, who won the gold medal in downhill skiing for Team USA on Sunday, told reporters after her race.
“I was jumping in excitement and it broke. I’m sure somebody will fix it — it’s not like crazy broken — but it’s a little broken,” she said.
The Olympics committee told CBS News on Wednesday that it was working with Italy’s government mint, which produced the medals, to repair them.
“A solution has been identified, and a targeted fix has been put in place,” the committee said in a statement to CBS News. Athletes who received defective medals “are encouraged to return them through the appropriate channels so that they can be promptly repaired and returned.”
