Juliette Mély / Photo credit: Jc Milhet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP (Illustration) 9:59 a.m., February 12, 2024

Some Olympic medals don't stay around athletes' necks for long. They sometimes sell for high prices on online platforms. Auction houses and private collectors are working behind the scenes to buy them up.

In her secure drawers, retired Catherine Salaün carefully stores her Olympic medals, 12 in all. “I have a gold medal from Albertville 1992, silver and bronze medals from the Lillehammer Olympic Games in 1994 […] and I have a gold medal awarded to a French athlete during the games from London in 2012", lists the seasoned collector. For more than 20 years, she has devoted part of her time to unearthing these Olympic and symbolic objects. “These medals always have a story: it’s the story of a sport, of an athlete, that’s what’s interesting,” explains Catherine.

© Catherine Salaün

Catherine Salaün surrounded by her collection of Olympic medals in her apartment in the South of France.

Online resale sites

To expand her collection, Catherine goes to online resale platforms and sites dedicated to auctions. Some individuals, holders of Olympic medals, have even contacted her from her website Collectionolympique.org to do business. Once the agreement is made, Catherine goes there to complete the transaction in person. “For example, the medals from the London games in 1908, those which belonged to Maurice Schilles, I collected them in Burgundy even though I live in the south of France, so yes I did a few kilometers”.

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In this case, these medals came from an inheritance. She got them for an affordable price. On the market, old medals sell for around 3,000-4,000 euros because the "athletes have died, the family is not necessarily interested in these medals and will therefore want to get rid of them", analyzes Catherine. But the more recent they are, the higher the price goes.

Medals that can be exchanged for gold

"Concerning the more recent games, it's much more complicated because the athletes have just obtained their medals and so if they want to sell them, it's for an essentially financial question. So they will try to get a price for them higher. For example, medals from the Rio 2016 or Tokyo 2020 games sell for around 20,000 euros,” adds the collector.

So in these conditions, Catherine does not intend to buy the medals for the 2024 games. She will wait a few more years before obtaining them.