The Invention of Tradition

Why do gold medalists bite their medals and, this year, ring a bell?

A new tradition in 2024

Silicon Valley wise man Paul Graham asks:

Nah, it’s a joking tradition that has emerged on the medal podium to act out the thoughts: “I can’t believe I did it! Is this a real gold medal?” So then they bite it to ostensibly see if they leave teethmarks in the soft gold. (The medals are so thinly plated these days that they probably don’t, but who cares?) And the joke spread to the other medalists who pose for pictures biting their own medals to see if they are real.

You can see this tradition spreading in real time on the podium for the balance beams a few nights ago: the two Italians are in on the joke but the Chinese is initially confused:

But then she joins in the fun.

People like traditions, especially when they win.

A brand new tradition at this Olympics is that track and field winners immediately after crossing the finish line get to go ring the bell.

This is not just any bell, but one destined to join the most famous bells in the world:

The Olympic bell will soon be hanging in the rebuilt Notre Dame cathedral to replace a bell that melted.

As you recall, the Gothic cathedral burned down in 2019 due, as was announced while it was still in flames, to either a careless worker’s cigarette or an electrical short. One or the other, but no other possible reason. All they knew for sure, as they announced during the fire, is that the cause definitely wasn’t Islamist terrorism. They could just tell.

Since then, we have had a lot of Catholic church burnings around the world by terrorists, especially by wokesters in Canada up in arms over over-hyped Mass Graves at First Nations boarding schools. But that just proves Notre Dame was burned down by a cigarette. Or a short.

Sorry, I’m getting off the topic here.

The point is that winners love ringing the bell of Notre Dame.

I looked up the tall Moroccan gold medalist in the steeplechase, Soufianne El Bakkali (pictured at the top), to find out if a Muslim would boycott a Christian bell for sectarian reasons.

As you can see, hell no, El Bakkali is going to ring that bell as hard as he can.

It’s fun.

Will bell-ringing by the winner become traditional at future Olympics? The perfection of the symbolism of Paris 2024 celebrating the rebuilding of Notre Dame (slated for a grand re-opening two weeks before this Christmas) by ringing a bell headed for Notre Dame can’t be reproduced, but it’s a worthy origin story for what I hope becomes a perennial practice.