Welcome to this week's episode of the Sports Curious podcast where we're bringing you a hot topic happening right now that we're going to dive in a little deeper on. And of course, we're in the midst of the Olympics and everyone is all going for gold. And of course, where would you keep that gold is the question that we've all clearly thought of.
And to give you some insights into what athletes who have won gold and silver and bronze have done with their medals, we have the weirdest places that people have hidden their medals. Joining me to talk about this conversation about where maybe if you broke into our house, you'd find our Olympic medals is my brother, my co -founder, my co -host, Scott Scott. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be here to discuss one of the most important trophies you can win in sports, a medal in the Olympics. And what would you do with it? if you think about it, right, when you win a trophy as an athlete, if you win the Super Bowl trophy or the Stanley Cup, you don't get a trophy. knowing you're certainly not hiding the Stanley Cup in your sock drawer. No, you're definitely not. You're not hiding that.
Like, if you have maybe like one of those big freezers you'd put a body in, like maybe one of those, you could hide it, but that's about it. This is one of the most unique trophies in sports technically, even though it's a medal. So when you win it as a professional athlete, if we win the Super Bowl, we get a Super Bowl ring. They get Olympic medals. I'm assuming there's no other swag that comes with that, just the medal. the medal and some money. And some money.
Yeah, talk to me about, you know, every country has a different dollar amount they reward their athletes with for a gold, silver or bronze. I think when we lived in Singapore, I remember it being like a gold medalist, which there aren't many typically from Singapore. I feel like it was like a million dollars. But they only had like seven athletes. Singapore is not producing the same amount of high talent Olympians that we are, so they can offer as much as they want or as little as they want.
There's not nearly as many people so that happens that way. So talk to me about how much our Olympians, our American Olympians are making for winning gold. So most of the money that these athletes make in the Olympics comes from medals, which the U .S. Olympic Paralympic Committee runs Project Gold. And for gold medals, they'll win $37 ,500 for silver, $22 ,500, and then for bronze, $15 ,000. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, you're right.
These athletes, their money comes from winning the gold medal or winning the medal and from sponsorships. Yes, and if you're someone like Michael Phelps who has 28 medals, I think you're doing pretty well. But if you've only got one bronze medal in your, I don't know, a discus thrower, it's not as great. So you need sponsorships as well.
Well, what I'm intrigued by, and I don't know the answer to this precisely, but you see these, let's say it's a Visa commercial and you're a discus store and you're in this Visa commercial. But as a proud sponsor of the U .S. Olympic teams, chances are the very small portion of that money probably goes to that athlete. The majority of it probably goes to the overall U .S. Olympic team budget, I'm assuming. And I think it depends on the level of athlete as well.
So obviously, that's just how things work in life. If you're more popular and successful, you're going to make more. But I'm sure they're all thankful for any money they can get. Yeah, it's true. So we're here to talk about where the medals go. Where do we hide them? You know, we hear about actors and actresses who hide their, who put their Oscar in the bathroom or on the mantle or wherever that might be, holds the toilet paper roll.
What seems to be the common denominator for a lot of Olympic athletes is to hide the medal in their sock drawer. That's a long and extensive list of sock drawer hiders. I'm guessing just because it's sock, they won't get chipped or ruined. They have some insulation and I guess most people wouldn't think to look in the sock drawer. Although after this podcast, they might have to move.
Right, I was gonna say, I feel like if I was breaking into someone's home, I would look for the obvious, but like sock drawer and underwear drawer would probably be pretty high on my list of where people hide stuff. Mm -hmm. And it's good. underwear drawer or sock drawer? I don't necessarily put my clothes away as you probably realize that so I don't really have that option. Hahaha! Check out this pile on the floor in the closet. It might be in there.
it could be a random sock in the closet that hasn't moved in five years. Where would you hide your metal if you had a, or something like that? Where would you hide it? Or keep it and not even hide it? That's a good question. I don't think, like I said, I don't think I could hide it in a sock drawer. It would be in a random sock on my floor that I've looked at and haven't touched. I think I'd probably have to give it to our parents and let them do something with it. A lot of these not breeds do.
They'll think... probably give it to mom and she'd forget. I'd also probably forget, so at least it's their fault, not mine. I feel like you would want to put it in... I mean, I'd want to display it, but I guess you'd only want to bring it out for parties or whatever so people can drink wine and try it on. I don't know. But I think it would need to go in like a safe or a safety deposit box or something that's locked up a little bit. I mean, I guess you could hide it.
Like I have drawers underneath our bed. That's where I hide the Christmas presents for now. No. Not after the podcast, you won't. Yeah. That's typically where I hide those because they're kind of blocked in by our nightstand. So maybe something like that. But I think I'd probably want it in a secure location. Yeah, I agree. I think so. Like you said, it's not really a party trick like Stanley Cup you can drink out of. You can't really drink out of a gold medal.
No, like I said, people would come over and have too much to drink and try it on and take pictures with it. But it's not like you can, you know, fill it like a punch bowl. Yeah, and it's interesting the medals this year. Every year, you know, Japan did something different. I think they used recycled materials for the medals in Japan, but they are really cool this year in Paris. Paris is doing something only Paris can do. They're including a piece of the Eiffel Tower in every medal.
So, it's one of the most unique medals they can give out. Yeah, that is very cool. And if you ever been to Paris, the Eiffel Tower is just, it's mind blowing how big it is because being from Las Vegas, our Eiffel Tower is not that big. It's not comparable. No, it's massive. So pieces of Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas in the middle wouldn't be as exciting. Well, there's a lot less pieces of it, so maybe that's it becomes more unique. something to think about now.
So we have the sock drawer and we have athletes like Apollo, Anton Ono. We have Mary Lou Retton, Sue Bird, Jessica Mendoza, who's a softball player who now broadcasts for baseball. They all hide their medals in Natalie Coughlin, all in the sock drawer. Now, what else do we have, right? The sock drawer. Give me some other fun opportunities here for places that people hide stuff. I mean, I think it's all very random, which kind of depends on the athlete.
I know Michael Phelps had previously, he kept his medals in a makeup bag wrapped in a t -shirt. And that. I feel like it's gotta be like a suitcase at this point. the amount of metal she has, he may have had to upgrade to like a utility suitcase of some sort. Yeah, I mean, I don't know about, I'm not a makeup artist, so my bag is much smaller that maybe would fit like five metals in it, but when you have 20 to 28, that's a commitment.
I mean safekeeping, they're not gonna get scratched or anything like that, so it's smart, but at this point, who knows what he's up to. wouldn't you wanna, I don't know. I feel like that's, like if they get scratched, they get used. I guess that's how my brain works of why hide it, wear it. I mean, not that you're gonna wear a medal out to the grocery store, but you know. could if you felt fancy. If you're going to the fancy grocery store, you can do that.
All foods. Now, Jordan Charles, she did the same thing as you. She gave it what would do, gave it to her parents, put it, her parents have it in a safe. Now, let's talk about Carl, what's that? and how she bought for her parents. Okay, well that makes sense then. the medals. So that's kind of next level. Okay. fairness. Like you're right. You're right. That's the least they can do is store it somewhere.
Now, Carl Lewis, so those of you who are younger listening to this podcast, you probably don't know who Carl Lewis is, but he's a track and field superstar back in the late 80s. And. He put his medal in his casket with his dad. When he was, was buried. This is one of the most obviously unique and I guess really pretty incredible tribute to his father that he was willing to let go of it and give it to him to be with forever. And then his mom was not happy that he did that. She was shocked.
And then he just said, no big deal. I'll just go win another one. And he was right. So if you're that fast and confident, you can let go of one, I guess. I mean, you feel like dad's with you. And so he did go out and win in 1988. He won a silver, but the Canadian who beat him, Ben Johnson, actually was busted for steroid use. So he actually claimed a gold again. You predicted right. Yeah, dad was looking out for him. it's probably all of that right there.
There you go. Now, Sean White, we all know the Flying Tomato, right? He's done Winter and Summer Olympics. He has so many medals, he actually forgot his before. He did, I mean, he's got all these X -game medals, summer, winter Olympics, so I guess at some point you just kind of forget where they are. And I guess at one point he said he forgot and he called his agent kind of to see where it was.
And I think his agent's heart dropped, he said, because he didn't really understand where it could have been. But then they found it in a dresser underneath the book. Once again, dressers, check the dressers. a book that seems like something. You think future you will remember where you put, but you definitely don't. I think I need to be a fake book or maybe that's where I would hide mine a fake book that you put into a bookshelf like when they sent him to prison with like a shank in it.
I was thinking more like Scooby -Doo, but yeah, you're right, the one that goes to prison. Not that I've ever done that, but that's just... Now, we've seen some athletes auction off their college football championship rings, their World Series rings. Have we seen anybody ever auction off a medal? We've seen athletes auction them off due to financial issues, unfortunately. There's been quite a few to do that.
But one good one we have that actually went towards charity was a boxer, Vladimir Klitschko, auctioned off his 1996 Olympic medal for Ukrainian children back in 2012. And he actually, it went for a million dollars, which is, you know, a pretty insane amount of money. But it went out to the kids and once it was auctioned off, the buyer who found out what it was going for actually gave it back to him. That's awesome.
I mean, that's incredible to give it back after knowing that, wow, for Cool Million. million and that was the Klitschko Brothers Foundation that took all that money and gave it back to the kids which is huge. And there was recently some confusion. A lot of people thought this happened during the recent invasion in Ukraine. It kind of resurfaced and everyone assumed that's where it was from but no it was back in 2012. That was 12 years ago.
and he's been the guy who's been doing ever since he's been advocating for kids in Ukraine, so it's pretty noble. That's pretty incredible. Yeah, that is pretty incredible. What else do we have? Who else are we missing in some of their weird, you know, let me look at my notes here that we have. And there we have it. I... Go ahead, I'm sorry. One I kind of thought was interesting, spot Megan Rapinoe, soccer star, recently retired. She put hers amongst her pots and pans.
Now that means she probably doesn't cook. Probably not, because what happens if you preheat the oven and throw a pot in there just to not even thinking, and it's got a metal layer. much like Sex and the City. She used to store shoes in the oven. So, well, she didn't cook and it's a New York City apartment. Like, where are you gonna put it? Good point. So, I mean, or maybe you cook a lot and every time you open the drawer with your pots and pans in it, you're like, here's my metal, I'm awesome.
There could be that too. It's just incredible to think about, you know, this is such an accomplishment and there's, there's so much to it, right? There's so much pride that goes into an Olympic win that yes, you're playing for a team if you win the Superbowl, but here you're playing for a team. You're playing for your country. You're playing for, you know, millions of people who are watching.
And I'd be intrigued because Simone Biles is slowly going to be ranking up there soon with Michael Phelps, maybe not to that quite capacity. She's getting close, yeah. I wonder what she's gonna do with all of her, where she does with all of hers. We're gonna have to investigate more because, yeah, essentially, right? Well, she's so tiny, so she can't wear them all. She'll probably fall over.
It's fun to watch, it's fun to cheer them on, and it's cool to understand that Olympians are just like us and hide their shit in their sock shore. absolutely. Well, thanks for joining me today to talk about the Olympics. What am I missing? Yes, yes. kind of a special one, a shot putter, Ryan Krauser. So I don't know if you remember last Olympics, his grandfather passed away the day before he left for the Olympics in Tokyo. And he was really emotional when he won gold medal.
I think he had a sign like that's for you, grandpa or something. He kind of does something kind of cool. He doesn't believe in hiding it. He'll take it out, he'll let kids wear it. I think he even said, it doesn't matter if they have Cheeto fingers. He just wants kids to wear it and get inspired and takes pictures with it to hopefully, you know, motivate them to someday achieve their dreams and make it to the Olympics or do whatever they want to do. I think that's cool.
They think that's what I would probably do with mine in all fairness is like, hey, I've got this. It's still just a thing, right? It's just an object, yeah. Obviously you worked hard for it, but if it can inspire some 12 year old to pursue their dreams and win a medal, I mean, that's better than being your soft toy. Yeah, I totally agree. That is really, really cool. Well, thanks, Ryan, for sharing it with the youth of America. That's what will drive our next Olympians.
So I can't wait to hear the stories in 10 years of those kids who've met him and are doing what they're doing. So. Well, now I will wrap us. Thank you for a great podcast. As always, enjoy the Olympics and enjoy watching our Americans bring home gold. Go USA.