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Chinese Olympics gold medalist Zhu Xueying is already having some issues with the hardware she won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer. Zhu, who won gold in trampoline, took to social media to show off the gold medal which she says is peeling.
“#olympic-medal Was your medal … peeling off like this?” the 23-year-old asked on the website Weibo.
The claim seemed to be backed up by swimmer Wang Shun, who won gold in the 200m individual medley, who also mentioned that his medal was peeling.
But don’t worry, because according to the Tokyo Olympic Committee, the peeling was just a protective coating on the medal.
On the evening of August 23rd, Olympic champion Zhu Xueying sent a message to Weibo, saying that her Olympic gold medal had lost a layer of skin, and the upper left had mottled visible to the naked eye. pic.twitter.com/gDPBga7rkt
— Cherry_Chen (@11240Cherry) August 24, 2021
“Let me clarify this… I didn’t mean to peel the thing off at first, I just discovered that there was a small mark (like pic one) on my medal. I thought that it was probably just dirt, so I rubbed it with my finger and found that nothing changed, so then I picked at it and the mark got bigger,” Zhang said, via the Global Times.
The medals have drawn some criticism because they were made from recycled materials, which some say takes away from the value.
Of course, the symbolism of being an Olympic gold medalist is still what matters the most.
