Yes, I heard a story about it this week too, but paying taxes isn't any different from what we see is a part of winning any sweepstakes, lottery or game show prizes. Taxes apply to such things. Those same athletes who win, also have the opportunities that follow from interview, product endorsements, job offers as trainers, coaches, talent scouts, doing advertising for companies, etc.
2012 London Olympics Medals The medals design was made by a British artist for decorative art, David Watkins. The London Olympic Games Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals specifications are stated here. All the medals are 85mm in diameter, 7mm thick and weighs 375−400g. The Bronze Medals’ composition is 97% copper, 0.5% tin and 2.5% zinc. The Silver Medals’ will be constituted of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. The Gold Medals’ will contain 92.5% silver, 1.34% gold and remaining copper. The authors of ore for these medals are Rio Tinto. The ores are extracted from Rio Tinto’s Copper Mine Kennecott Utah near the American Salt Lake City and from Mongolian Project Oyu Tolgoi. The production of Medals is scheduled in Royal Mint’s South Wales’ headquarters. Image link > The Economist: How much is an Olympic gold medal worth?
The London 2012 medals are among the biggest ones ever awarded. http://www.london2012.com/medals/about/ http://sports.ndtv.com/olympics-2012/news/item/194094-london-boasts-of-most-expensive-olympic-medals Christian
Fair enough sir. I agree that it is horrible for the fans, I just think the badminton administrators need to take a major share of the blame too for creating such a horrible structure for their tournament. If they are going to toss 8 athletes from the games over it, I also believe the governing board for badminton should all get tossed as well. I still can't stop laughing, though, when reading the beginning of this thread: "Does it bother anyone but me that Olympic athletes put their sweaty, oily fingers all over the surfaces of the medals when they pose for photos" Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/t210882/#ixzz22OXYnpCJ Lol, I sure as heck hope some news organization doesn't get a hold of that for some report. I wonder what the rest of the world would think of us coin geeks if they did.
Yup. If I had to work as hard as most of those athletes to beat every other world athlete that trained in the same sport as I did, I'd have my fingers all over it as well. They deserve it, it's theirs, most keep them forever and I don't care what they do with it, it doesn't bother me one bit.
Not too mention what they earned for winning the medals: Gold medal=$25,000 Silver medal=$15,000 Bronze medal=$10,000