Winter Olympics 2026: Gold and silver medals skyrocket in value this year. Here’s how much they’re worth

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games kick off in Italy on Friday, with top athletes from across the world competing for not just any prize, but for the most expensive medals in Olympics history.

The Milano Cortina-based games come as the value of precious metals have skyrocketed, most notably gold and silver. Gold was worth about $2,500 per ounce when the Paris Summer Olympics took place in 2024.

Now, less than two years later, gold sits at just over $4,800 per ounce—and even that’s a significant drop from its recent record-high of about $5,600 per ounce just last week. 

Silver averaged around $28 per ounce during the last Olympic games, but is now valued at about $77 per ounce. Again, this is a downturn from a high of over $121 per ounce at the end of January. 

How much are Olympic medals worth during the 2026 winter games? 

At time of writing, a rough calculation shows that each gold medal is worth about $2,176—up from about $900 in Paris. Meanwhile, a silver medal is valued at about $1,245, based on the metal’s current worth.

Notably, the Olympic gold medals haven’t been pure gold in over 100 years, as CNN previously reported. Instead, they are now made up of 500 grams of silver and just six grams of gold. The silver medal is solely made of 500 grams of, well, silver. 

There will be 735 Olympic medals and 411 Paralympic medals awarded during the two events. Each medal is a thickness of just 10 millimeters with an 80 millimeter diameter.

Of course, the cost of each medal is more significant for the manufacturer than the recipient (you can learn more about how the Olympic medals are made here). Olympic medals are not commonly sold and, when they are, typically go for a lot more than face value. In January, swimmer Ryan Lochte sold three gold medals for about $385,000, Swimming World reports. Previously, he sold six Olympic medals for $166,000.

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