Bringing forth a vast spectrum of emotions, the Olympic Games [1] are one of the most highly anticipated sporting events over the years. Both athletes and fans alike can experience a range of responses, from utter joy and jubilation to deep disappointment or disbelief. When anticipating the release of the judge's rulings, and looking high up at the scoreboard, the moment can be tense. But there's one reaction viewers can almost always count on. When athletes win a medal, they'll pretend to bite it.

We saw it with Team USA several times this year already. The Team USA men's gymnastics team posted pretending to bite their bronze medals — the first Team USA had won in 16 years. Team USA Women's Gymnastics did the same with their gold medals (which helped cement Simone Biles's new record-breaking Olympic medal tally [2]). Alev Kelter of Team USA women's rugby [3] has her own medal-biting pose, celebrating the first Olympic medal USA's women's rugby team has ever won. While some might think Olympians typically bite their medals at the request of the media and photographers, there's actually a historic reason for the pose.

The inspiration for biting down into gold (or, nowadays, any winning medal) stems back to the Gold Rush, when mining workers would check for soft gold by giving their finds a good bite, per the BBC Science Focus Magazine [4].

The first gold medals were awarded during the 1906 Olympic games [5] in St. Louis (so shortly after the Gold Rush, which ran from 1848 to 1855 — so it's possible even way back then, those athletes cheekily nibbled at their medals). Today, the gold medals at the Olympics are no longer made of solid gold [6]. Instead, the makeup of a gold medal is roughly 6g of pure gold, and the remainder mostly silver. But this year, the gold medals given to the athletes have a special, unique detail — there are actually pieces of the Eiffel Tower embedded into each medal, per NBC Olympics [7].

According to the official Olympics website [8], David Möller, from Germany, apparently broke a tooth from trying to bite his silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. So when it comes to biting medals, Olympians might want to pass — or at least make sure they're only pretending to sink their teeth into their new gear [9].

Jade Esmeralda [10], MS, CSCS, is a Staff Writer, Health & Fitness. A life-long martial artist and dancer, Jade has a strong passion for strength & conditioning, sports science, and human performance. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in Exercise Science and Strength and Conditioning from George Washington University.