MORE than 100 Rio Olympics medals will be returned – because they are “falling to pieces”.
The Brazil Games was hit by a number of bizarre problems, including a green swimming pool.
But now it turns out that almost a year on, the world’s biggest sporting event is still facing problems.
Embarrassed 2016 organisers said that scores of the cherished medals will need to be replaced.
An estimated 2,021 medals were handed out to competitors but “many soon began to flake apart”, according to reports.
Rio Games communications officer Mario Andrada said: “We’re seeing problems with the covering on between six or seven per cent of the medals and it seems to be to do with the difference in temperatures.
“The most common issue is that they were dropped or mishandled and the varnish has come off and they’ve rusted or gone black in the spot where they were damaged.
“The medals will either be repaired or replaced.”
Olympic gold medals are actually just 1.34 per cent gold.
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The rest is made of sterling silver and roughly 30 per cent of the silver in those thousands of medals was recycled.
Athletes were complaining about the medals as far back as October.
Rio organisers and the International Olympic Committee are now trying to get the medals replaced by the Brazilian mint that made them.
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