It is believed that the first athletes to decide to "bite" their medals were the British track and field team, who won the hurdles competition at the European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1991.
As the athletes themselves noted, photographers asked them to do something unusual and funny for the shot.
Subsequently, this became an unofficial tradition. At the same time, it gives rise to amusing situations. One of the most memorable cases occurred in 2010. German luger David Möller, who won a medal at the Vancouver Olympics, bit his award so hard that he broke a tooth.
In general, the tradition of testing metal with one's teeth appeared several hundred years ago when merchants and pirates checked gold coins for authenticity by biting them. Pure gold is a soft metal, so such checks inevitably left bite marks on it. Of course, this fact has no direct relation to the sporting tradition. Modern gold medals in sports often contain only a small percentage of gold in the form of plating.
