Photo is unrelated to the article. South Korea's Lee Hae-ran bites her gold medal at the Asian Games. [Yonhap]
Photo is unrelated to the article. South Korea's Lee Hae-ran bites her gold medal at the Asian Games. [Yonhap]

A gold medal awarded at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games was found to have discoloration, prompting organizers to visit the athlete's accommodation that same night and swap it for a new one. The organizing committee said it was the first medal replacement due to a defect since the Games opened.

According to China's Xinhua News Agency, an esports gold medalist noticed Friday that part of the medal's rim had a stain-like mark that differed in color from the surrounding surface and asked the organizing committee for a replacement. The discoloration was partial, appearing only on a section of the rim rather than on the front face of the medal.

The organizing committee told Xinhua it could not determine whether the color difference on some gold medals stemmed from the manufacturing process or developed after the medals were handed to athletes. The nationality of the athlete and the specific esports event were not disclosed.

The committee said the case was the only instance of a medal being replaced due to a defect since the Games began.

According to the Games' official website, about 7,000 medals are to be awarded at this year's event. Designed by Shiba Daisuke, each medal measures 80 millimeters in diameter and 5 millimeters thick, with gold medals weighing approximately 265 grams. They are made of sterling silver plated with more than 1 gram of gold.

The medals are "recycled medals" incorporating metals recovered from small home appliances collected by local governments, produced by the Japan Mint, headquartered in Osaka.

According to Xinhua, each medal undergoes one inspection by the manufacturer after production and before packaging, followed by a second check by organizing committee staff. Any scratches or stains found during this process are repaired or otherwise addressed.

Medal quality issues have recurred at major international competitions. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston posted on social media that his medal had begun to peel just 10 days after the closing ceremony, setting off a series of complaints about peeling plating and discoloration.

The French Mint told AFP in March 2025 that it had received 220 replacement requests — about 4 percent of the 5,084 medals awarded at the Olympics and Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Japanese sports outlet Lonspo said Sunday that with the Games now a week in, having only one complaint out of roughly 7,000 medals to be awarded was "remarkable," and called it an opportunity to show the world "just how outstanding the Japan Mint's manufacturing technology and medal quality are."


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com