Chinese gymnastics champion Zhou Yaqin took social media by storm a few days ago with a funny shot when she learned the "bite the medal" move while standing on the podium from her fellow winners.
During the crowning of the winners of the balance beam competition in gymnastics, the gold medalist bit her medal, so Zhou noticed her and tried to imitate her, in a funny way.
"Biting the medal" is an old Olympic tradition, but what does this famous move mean?
After the medal-winning Olympic athletes stand on the podium, receive their medals, and officially listen to the national anthem of the gold medal winner, they leave the stage and face an army of photographers, then bite their medal in front of the photographers.
According to David Walczynski, president of the International Association of Olympic Historians and author of "The Complete Book of the Olympics", the reason is "because the photographers ask them to do it."
While Olympic historians aren’t sure which athlete started the trend, they believe athletes chewed on their awards to test the metal.
Some say that because gold is softer than silver or bronze, one way to tell if your medal is real is to bite it.
If your teeth leave a mark or dent on the precious medal, you know you’ve won a gold medal.
In California, in the 19th century, gold prospectors would test whether the gold they found was “real” by biting it.
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