Olympic champs claim material is ‘peeling off’ gold medals made from recycled electronic devices – just 4 weeks after Tokyo Games

Two Chinese athletes have claimed that the medals they won at the recent Tokyo 2020 Olympic games are starting to lose their shine and disintegrate, sharing pictures of the coveted items 'peeling off'.

Zhu Xueying took home gold in the women's trampolining event and said the material had been "peeling" off her prized possession.

The champion has used social media site Weibo to post photos that appear to show parts of her Olympic medal disintegrating – even though just four weeks have passed since her triumph.

"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," Zhu later said, as relayed by the Global Times.

A fellow athlete, Wang Shun, who scooped the same accolade in the 200m individual swimming medley, also complained of the same problem and confessed that he "dare not to pick at it anymore".

Medals given out to winners, runners up and third-placed athletes at this year's games were made from recycled electronic devices including mobile phones.

Responding to the furor, the International Olympics Committee said the protective film had merely come away from the gold medals and their quality had not been affected.

"Even if you remove the coating, it does not directly affect the medals' quality," the Tokyo Olympic Committee said to the Global Times.