Ian Ferguson: Former Canoeist and Olympian on the quality of the medals at the Paris Olympics

This year’s Olympic medals don’t seem to be up to standard. 

A US Olympic skateboarder has criticised the quality of his bronze medal after it began to deteriorate only a week after he won it. 

The backside of the medal is chipped, and it’s already losing its bronze colour. 

Former Olympian Ian Ferguson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that his are 40 years old and look exactly the same as the day they were made.  

He said that they were made differently at the time, solid silver and gold plated, with a decent coating of gold on them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ever do for Cea Ellens here, then maybe we can
have some carless days for the electric bikes like we
did back Maybe we need to do it. Maybe we
could have like drialless days, you know, or maybe like
I don't know, dishwasherless days, so we could you know,
not have a power crisis.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I don't know. It's all kinds of things we can
do back to the nineteen seventies, we go nineteen past five.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Apparently the medals at this year's Olympics aren't that flash
because a skateboarder from the US has criticized the quality
of his bronze metal. It started to chip only a
week after he wanted. It's already losing the bronze color.
Former canoeist and Olympian ian Ferguson is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, Ian, hi here, the how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm well, thank you? That's not on, is it. If
you go and win yourself a bronze, it should stay
in good nick for years now.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I just heard about this. Mine's forty years old. My ones,
and they're all just exactly the same as the day
they're made, but you know they they're made differently. They've
solid silver gold plated with a decent coating of gold
on them. Yeah, so that's yeah, it's terrible and it was.
I was looking at them thinking that they look fantastic

(01:07):
with a bit of the Eiffel Tower on there, but
now in stunning to wonder where they get that bit
of metal off the Eiffel Tower that they didn't undo
the bolts at the bottom, did they tower?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Do you reckon? We exported some of the Northland boys
to help them out with the medals. Yeah, I mean,
you know what is possible as well as he did
say that he wore it over the weekend and his
mates wore it over the weekend, and young people nowadays
can party quite hard. A they might have partied the
bronze off.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Oh yeah, yeah they possibly did. Don't know what alcohol
they're spilling all over it.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Even just out of the whole judging by what's going
on with the hockey team. Hey, I have a question
for you. Do you think that the K four boys
have redeemed themselves and proved that, in fact the C
two stunt was worth it?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah? I do actually because it wasn't the stunt, it
was it was know what you know? To us, it
seemed like at and it was very, very embarrassing. But
they they obviously knew they had a you know, they
they were a good team, which they showed, finally showed
in the end, but they wanted to get there, and yeah,

(02:17):
it's it was the wrong way to do it. I
got it, mate, But now that it's done, I think
we just forget it and go right. We've got a
good team coming on because they're all young, and yeah,
they've got to put up with that embarrassing race they
had to do and let them go and go on
from there. We you know, it's a matter of getting

(02:38):
getting them interested in the Olympics and getting that drive
from them. And yeah, I think this has taught them
a lesson and they'll they'll come out stronger for it.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, totally, and I totally agree with you. Thank you
so much, mate, Enjoy your weekend. That's Ian Ferguson, former
canoeist and olympian. For more from Hither duplessy Ellen Drive,
listen live to news talks.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
It'd be from four pm weekdays.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
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