Why do so many of the photos showing the athletes winning their medals show them chewing on them?

Question

Why do so many of the photos showing the athletes winning their medals show them chewing on them?

Answer 1

They're biting them. Back in the gold prospecting days, they used to bite the gold to see if it was real because fake gold or fool's gold isn't as hard as real gold and leaves teeth marks. It's just a tradition now that when someone gets a gold medal they bite it to "prove" it's real. It's a celebratory thing now.

Answer 2

Gold is soft - in olden times, people would test the metal against their teeth.

It has become a ritual in the olympics, very few get to do this - The gold is no longer being tested - it is a ritual that allows the medal to be put close to the face for pictures - we are a visual world.