Medals handed out at the Tokyo Olympics are losing their shine and beginning to disintegrate, according to a pair of Chinese athletes who took to social media to complain.

Zhu Xueying, who won gold in the women's trampolining during the games, shared an image of her medal on the Chinese social-media platform Weibo and said the material was "peeling" off.

"Was your medal ... peeling off like this?" she asked.

"Let me clarify this. I didn't mean to peel the thing off at first, I just discovered that there was a small mark on my medal.


"I thought that it was probably just dirt, so I rubbed it with my finger and found that nothing changed, so then I picked at it and the mark got bigger," she said, as reported by the Global Times.

Another Chinese athlete, Wang Shun, said his medal was also beginning to peel. The swimmer, who won gold in the 200-meter individual medley, said that he "dare not to pick at it anymore."

The medals awarded at this year's games were made from recycled electronic devices including cellphones.

In response, the International Olympic Committee said it was just the protective film coming away and that it did not affect the quality of the medal itself.

"Even if you remove the coating, it does not directly affect the medals' quality," the Tokyo organizing committee said, per the Global Times.

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