Friday, February 17, 2006
Olympic Gold
Once upon a time there was a man named Hugh Loebner. Mr Loebner wanted to price some gold medals for a prize he was giving out. When shopping around for the medals, he apparently had a very eye-opening experience.
"...if the price is too much for you Dr. Loebner, you can do what the Olympic Committee does."
"What does the Olympic Committee do?" I wondered, and asked.
"Why, they have silver medals, gold plated," was her answer.
I could scarcely believe that this could be true. Nevertheless, I checked on the internet. I quote now from Olympic Charter:
Chapter5, Rule 70, paragraph 2 of the Charter, which is entitled "Medals and Diplomas" states:
2.1 For the individual events, the first prize shall be a silver gilt medal and a diploma, the second prize a silver medal and a diploma, and the third prize a bronze medal and a diploma ... etc
2.2 The medals shall be at least 60mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. The medals for first and second places shall be of silver of at least 925-1000 grade; the medal for first place shall be gilded with at least 6 g of pure gold.
Mr Loebner included this information in a speech he was giving in Sydney, Australia, just two years before they hosted the summer Olympics of 2000. In that same speech, which later came to be known as the Olympic Gold Medal Fraud speech, he went on to say this:
"Let us be conservative, and say that 500 medals must be awarded. Let us say further say that each medal will cost $5000. This results in a total cost of $2,500,000. I think that this is a [sic] consevative cost, and that the true cost would be less. In any case, it must be within an order of magnitude.
What is $2,500,000 compared to the cost of the Olympics? Atlanta spent more that 6 thousand 200 million dollars, 6.2 billion dollars. The cost of honest gold medals would have been less than 1/2 of one percent. I hazard the guess that more was spent on toilet paper, than would have been spent on gold."
Loebner gave the speech in 1998, and the offending passage has since been stricken from the IOC Charter. Not amended, mind you, but merely moved to the IOC Protocol Guide. You can find the relevant section - still relatively unchanged, referring to the "gilt" medals - on the Beijing 2008 site.
Tongue-in-cheek, Loebner goaded Sydney into improving upon what he perceived as a problem. "To close, I make three suggestions. The first suggestion is that those 6 grams of pure gold that gild the silver GILT medal be named. The second suggestion is that the name be "the gilt of the Olympic Committee. " The third suggestion I make as visitor to your fair city. If you would be better than Atlanta, Sydney, give gold."
And of course it warrants mention: Loebner wanted the medals for his "Loebner Prize," rewarding endeavours in Artificial Intelligence (AI). "Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Such a computer can be said 'to think.' Each year an annual prize of $2000 and a bronze medal is awarded to the most human-like computer."
Including, I must add, this project.
"...if the price is too much for you Dr. Loebner, you can do what the Olympic Committee does."
"What does the Olympic Committee do?" I wondered, and asked.
"Why, they have silver medals, gold plated," was her answer.
I could scarcely believe that this could be true. Nevertheless, I checked on the internet. I quote now from Olympic Charter:
Chapter5, Rule 70, paragraph 2 of the Charter, which is entitled "Medals and Diplomas" states:
2.1 For the individual events, the first prize shall be a silver gilt medal and a diploma, the second prize a silver medal and a diploma, and the third prize a bronze medal and a diploma ... etc
2.2 The medals shall be at least 60mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. The medals for first and second places shall be of silver of at least 925-1000 grade; the medal for first place shall be gilded with at least 6 g of pure gold.
Mr Loebner included this information in a speech he was giving in Sydney, Australia, just two years before they hosted the summer Olympics of 2000. In that same speech, which later came to be known as the Olympic Gold Medal Fraud speech, he went on to say this:
"Let us be conservative, and say that 500 medals must be awarded. Let us say further say that each medal will cost $5000. This results in a total cost of $2,500,000. I think that this is a [sic] consevative cost, and that the true cost would be less. In any case, it must be within an order of magnitude.
What is $2,500,000 compared to the cost of the Olympics? Atlanta spent more that 6 thousand 200 million dollars, 6.2 billion dollars. The cost of honest gold medals would have been less than 1/2 of one percent. I hazard the guess that more was spent on toilet paper, than would have been spent on gold."
Loebner gave the speech in 1998, and the offending passage has since been stricken from the IOC Charter. Not amended, mind you, but merely moved to the IOC Protocol Guide. You can find the relevant section - still relatively unchanged, referring to the "gilt" medals - on the Beijing 2008 site.
Tongue-in-cheek, Loebner goaded Sydney into improving upon what he perceived as a problem. "To close, I make three suggestions. The first suggestion is that those 6 grams of pure gold that gild the silver GILT medal be named. The second suggestion is that the name be "the gilt of the Olympic Committee. " The third suggestion I make as visitor to your fair city. If you would be better than Atlanta, Sydney, give gold."
And of course it warrants mention: Loebner wanted the medals for his "Loebner Prize," rewarding endeavours in Artificial Intelligence (AI). "Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Such a computer can be said 'to think.' Each year an annual prize of $2000 and a bronze medal is awarded to the most human-like computer."
Including, I must add, this project.
