Olympic Medals from Rio 2016 Deteriorating

Several international agencies have started reporting that the medals from the Rio 2016 Olympics are deteriorating, which is due to the fact that they were made from recycled material.

Germán Sánchez, the diver who won the silver medal in the individual platform event, has already noticed this change in his medal.

"It does look a bit damaged, I thought it was my own carelessness, but now that I have been hearing the news, I do feel that it is from the material used to make the medal," said Sánchez.

The athlete mentioned that he constantly holds the medal, as he presents lectures to the public.

"Right now, I see it a lot since there are still invitations for lectures and people really like to see it and touch it, so they notice the deterioration and compare it to the one from the London Olympics and see the difference. Many people tell me to get it fixed, but my fear is that it may get more damaged," he pointed out.

Sánchez indicated that even if it continues to deteriorate, the meaning of the medal will still be the same.

"The result is there and I believe that this goes down in history, even if in many years I show the medal and it is deteriorated, it will still be worth the same, and also the sacrifice I made to achieve it. If they gave us a chocolate medal, you put the meaning to it and the result I achieved has already become history," he explained.

Meanwhile, taekwondo athlete María Espinoza, who also won silver, mentioned that she has not seen the medal as she keeps it stored in her home state, Sinaloa. She trains at the National Center of High Performance (CNAR) and lives in Querétaro.