Revealed: Why athletes bite their medals after winning at Olympics

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 17: We have often seen that the athletes competing in the Olympic games bite their winner's medal at the podium after being handed over the medallions.

Photo gallery

Ever wondered why the Olympic medal winners bite their respective medallions at the winning podium?

Rafael Nadal (right) with his doubles partner Marc Lopez biting their gold medal at Rio Olympics (Image courtesy: Rafa Nadal Twitter handle)

There are several reasons that have been connoted to justify the act of Olympians. Some suggest that it is done just to satisfy the demands of the on field photographers. It is symbolic and an iconic way to celebrate ones triumph and the it is a photographer's delight.

Bahrain's Ruth Jebet shows off her gold medal during the ceremony for the women's 3000-meter steeplechase final

While the histoprians believe that it is an age old tradition where the athletes chech if the medals are authentic.

Well, going by the second logic, there is no point checking the authenticity of the modern days medals as they are not real gold. Of course they are not, it is financially impossible to provide all gold in a gold medal.

Rather according to reports, in London 2012 Olympics, the gold medals were roughly composed of 93% silver, 6% copper and 1% gold!

Fehaid Aldeehani, an independent athlete from Kuwait won gold medal at men's double trap event

So it is safe to assume that the tradition is practiced by some athletes just for the photographers' demand.

But it has to be kept in mind that the procedure is dangerous and may cause harm. German athlete David Moeller broke his tooth on a medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Gold medalists from South Korea (bottom) celebrate their triumph in men's archery

He was quoted: "The photographers wanted us to bite into our medals at the presentation ceremony. And a corner of my front tooth broke off.

"It wasn't too bad and it didn't hurt. But it is annoying when you can't smile as you normally do. And because I want to have nice pictures and happy memories of my Olympic Games, I went to the dentist to get it repaired"