The absurd thing happened when I rubbed my hand on the Olympic gold medal that I won after a lot of hard work and sweat, and the surface came off.
China's Zhu Xueing, a gold medalist in the women's trampoline at the Tokyo Olympics, posted three photos on her social media account on the 23rd with the caption, "The gold medal has been removed."
“At first, I didn’t intend to remove the medal,” Zhu Xiing explained. “I found a small stain on the medal, thought it was dirt, and wiped it off, but the stain got bigger and bigger.”
The photo released by Zhu Shaying shows that the surface of the medal has been peeled off more than the original.
"It's hard to judge just by looking at the photos, but it seems that the cracks didn't stick properly because unnecessary residues were not removed between the coatings," Pan Kong, an engineer and product designer, told the Global Times in China.
Netizens who saw Zhu Shaying's post criticized it with comments such as "It doesn't make sense to reward the efforts of the gold medalist with a low-quality medal" and "It should be replaced with a new one in Japan."
Some pointed out that Japan's method of making medals for the Tokyo Olympics was overly experimental.
From 2017 to 2019, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee conducted the '2020 Medal Project' to create Olympic medals from recycled materials donated by Japanese people. It reflects the agenda of 'for the earth and people' and the purpose of 'sustainable' and 'environment' set forth by the Tokyo Olympics.
As the controversy over the quality of medals spread, the Japan Mint, the manufacturer of the medals for the Tokyo Olympic Games, said through the Global Times that there is a possibility of further investigation, saying, "There have been no cases where gold medals have been removed so far."
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(Photo=Zhu Shaing Weibo, 'ShanghaiEye' Facebook)