An Olympic gold medalist will be given a new medal after the Mayor of her hometown chomped on the first.
Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Japanese city Nagoya, sparked fury online when he lowered his mask and bit on softball athlete, Miu Goto’s medal at an event. He was accused of ignoring Covid-19 restrictions and “lacking respect”.
Now, Olympic officials have said they will swap Ms Goto’s medal for an untarnished one, after the mayor apologized and said he would pay for a replacement.
The Mayor faced a backlash after putting the medal between his teeth at a ceremony last week to celebrate Japan’s victory over the USA in the women’s softball final.
Social media users said the act was unhygienic and impolite towards the athlete.
Japanese silver medalist fencer Yuki Ota wrote on Twitter: “Apart from showing a lack of respect for athletes, he bit it even though [athletes] are putting on medals themselves or on their team-mates during medal ceremonies as part of infection prevention measures. Sorry, I can’t understand it”.
That notwithstanding, ‘Germ medal’ was soon trending on social media in Japan.
Even Toyota, the owners of the team Ms Goto plays for, condemned the gesture, calling it “inappropriate” and “extremely regrettable”.
However, the 72-year-old Mayor apologized later for his actions, which reportedly prompted over 7,000 complaints to city authorities.
“I forgot my position as Nagoya mayor and acted in an extremely inappropriate way” he said, adding that he wanted to pay for a replacement medal.
A statement from Tokyo 2020 organizers said the replacement had been agreed between the International Olympic Committee and Ms Goto. The IOC would cover the costs, it said.
Meanwhile, Goto reportedly considered keeping the original but eventually accepted the IOC offer of a replacement.
Well, biting medals is a common quirk at the Games, but is usually reserved for winners.
The Tokyo 2020 organizers appeared to make light of the incident when they tweeted: “We just want to officially confirm that the #Tokyo2020medals are not edible!”
Biting metal is a tradition
Many years ago, biting metal- any metal, not just medals from the Olympics, was a way to test its authenticity. During the California gold rush in the late 1800s, people would bite into gold to test if it was real. The theory was that pure gold is a soft, malleable metal. If a bite left indentation marks on the metal, it was most likely real. If it wasn’t, you could break a tooth.
Athletes today are only following examples set by other medalists. It could also be because these champions have seen their sister and brother athletes doing the same. Michael Phelps chomped down on his medal. So did Simone Biles. So, today’s Olympic athletes are following the tradition.
That notwithstanding, photographers are telling athletes to bite their medals.
It has also been said that the reason for medal biting is a simple one. In a 2012 story for NBCNews.com, David Wallechinsky, President of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of ‘The Complete Book of the Olympics’ shared that the practice comes from athletes listening to photographers who are keen for the killer shot seen all around the world.
In 2016, NBC Olympians Dawn Harper-Nelson and Natalie Coughlin both shared that the throng of photographers insisted that they each chomp onto their new medals after winning.
Coughlin explained that “They wear you down and they make you bite it”.
Harper-Nelson said: “They’re screaming, ‘Look at me!’ You just have everyone yelling demands of ‘Smile!’ and ‘Bite your medal!’”.
Read also: Tokyo 2020: Nigerian athlete, Enekwechi washes his ‘only’ jersey ahead of shot-put finals
