While Olympians bite medal, Paralympians hear it – Here's what differentiates the two!

New Delhi: Nine day have already passed at the Rio Paralympics and the 19-man Indian contingent has won a total of 4 medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.

While the Paralympics is pretty much the same as that of Olympics, people have noticed one drastic difference between the two.

Every Olympian was seen biting his/her medal, the Paralympians hold them near their ears. So why exactly is that?

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) have created the medals with an additional feature as compared to the Olympic medals. Steel balls are kept inside the medals so visually impaired athletes could hear them. Each bronze medal contains 16 steels balls that create the lowest sound, silver medals each have 20 balls for moderate sound and gold medals contain a total of 28 steel balls for the loudest sound.

Another special feature is that each of the medals inscribed with “Rio 2016 Paralympic Games” in Braille.

 

A medal like no other! These Paralympic winners are listening to their medals! For the first time ever, the Paralympic Games have placed a device inside the medals that use tiny steel balls to make a sound when they are shaken, allowing visually impaired athletes to identify which type they are. The bronze medals have 16 steel balls and make the lowest sound. The silver ones have 20 balls and the golds have 28, producing the loudest noise. All of the medals also have the words 'Rio 2016 Paralympic Games' written on them in Braille. Awesome! @rio2016 @paralympics

A photo posted by The Olympic Games (@olympics) on Sep 13, 2016 at 8:10am PDT