Being a winter Olympian can be an expensive business. All that time dedicated to training, along with costly equipment, really adds up to a big bill.
According to analysis by Oxford Economics, however, if you end up on the winner’s podium there may now be a greater temptation to cash in those medals.
A gold medal is now worth close to $2,000 (€1,690) according to its analysts – compared with just under $500 in 2018.
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As worries about inflation and a faltering global economy have grown over the past year, the value of gold and silver has surged. The increase in value of an ounce of gold is without precedent.
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Ten years ago, an ounce was worth about €1,150. At the turn of 2024, it stood at around €1,840. As of earlier this week it was trading at more than €5,000.
While the precious metal has pared back some of its gains over recent weeks – falling from €5,400 in late January, the overall trajectory since early 2024 might suggest something significant is happening within the global financial system.
“What has changed the fundamental plumbing is ‘de-dollarisation’,” says Stephen Flood of Dublin-based gold and silver bullion dealer GoldCore.
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“The security shield – the dollar that has been in place for 70 years – has now suddenly been called into question”.
Flood believes the world is witnessing an “enormous shift” and the unwinding of a decades-long investment trade that had the dollar and US treasuries at its centre. This, he says, is the reason for the headlong rush into gold and silver.
“The US government appears to be withdrawing from the global economic order – and becoming transactional as opposed to working in a rules-based system”.
As a result, he says, central banks and institutional investors are moving more of their portfolios into precious metals – as a hedge against the new direction being taken by Washington.
According to Ross Norman, chief executive of Metals Daily in London, “there is another dynamic in there”.
“In one word – debt,” he says.
“Six out of the G7 countries have debt ratios of over 100 per cent – if they don’t sort out those ratios in the next three or four years there is a possibility of them getting into a doom-loop”.
He says countries outside of the European Union and Britain are acquiring gold in larger amounts – whereas previously they would have held US treasuries or British gilts.
“That’s fine if you have absolute confidence that they will honour those [bonds] – but a growing number of people don’t believe that any more”.
Norman points out that the UK hasn’t had a trade surplus since the early 2000s and needs to find a way of quickly growing out of its economic troubles.
“We had convinced the Asians to give us their savings and we lived off that – but they don’t want to do that any more,” he says.
Gold, he says, is the ultimate hedge against concerns about debt mountains and inflation. This, taken into consideration alongside Trump’s gunship diplomacy and tariff threats, means reserve managers in central banks are going to increase their holdings of the metal.
“Essentially, gold gives you sovereignty”.
The silver market is somewhat different, Norman adds.
Silver is worth more than double what it cost in early 2025 – but has a practical application in addition to its precious metal status.
He notes that the US recently added silver to its critical minerals list – and the British are talking about doing the same. China, he says, holds the upper hand not only with the amount it possesses but in its ability to refine it.
Irish economist Jim Power is sceptical about claims the world is starting to dump the dollar as its reserve currency.
“We are absolutely not there yet,” he says. “There is nothing to take up the slack – the dollar is still the prime currency. The idea that the Chinese renminbi is somehow going to attain global status – it ain’t going to happen”.
Instead, says Power, there is a degree of “skittishness” among investors given the uncertainty created by Donald Trump and the nervousness about the amount of money being ploughed into artificial intelligence stocks.
He believes holding an increasing amount of gold is a “hedge” against what looks like an inevitable re-evaluation of the AI sector.
The fact that the US treasury market is “doing okay”, he says, suggests more of a gradual “re-rating” is taking place with the dollar – not some fundamental reordering of the global financial system.
“It is an asset that offers no return – gold doesn’t pay interest or dividends. While it may be flavour of the month we are not seeing a flight of funds away from classic asset classes”.
Flood concedes that the value of the metals may fall back if it is shown that, post-Trump, the United States is prepared for a reset in its relations with the rest of the world.
He is sceptical of such a development though and points to deeper trends within the US body politic that will carry some of Trump’s legacy.
Norman says “some of the froth” did come off gold in recent weeks following Trump’s walkback on Greenland.
The biggest loser over recent weeks has been cryptocurrency. Bitcoin saw all its gains since Trump took office completely wiped out.
The appointment of Kevin Warsh – who is seen as a relatively sensible appointment by the markets – as chairman of the US Federal Reserve has also reduced worries about out-of-control inflation in the world’s biggest economy.
Things are definitely not normal, however, says Power.
“It’s kind of indicative of how strange the markets have been for some time,” he says.
“Looking at gold, it is traditionally a safe-haven asset. You’d normally expect equity markets to be falling and gold to be benefiting from that. But it shows you how strange things are that gold and silver are being snapped up and at the same time equity markets continue to go ahead virtually everywhere.
“Market participants really haven’t a clue about what happens next”.
