The Bryan brothers are identical twins, but their Olympic gold medals look nothing alike.
Mike Bryan told Live @ Wimbledon that brother Bob took poor care of his London Olympic doubles tennis gold medal and then swapped it out for Mike’s gold.
“[Bob] carried it around for four months, and it got scratched, and he dropped it a few times,” Mike said. “It’s not even a circle anymore. And then he switched them on me. So he’s got the immaculate, the pristine gold, and I got his beat-up one. I’m going to switch it back.”
The Bryan brothers completed tennis’ “Golden Slam” by beating France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra in the 2012 Olympic final, also at Wimbledon. They had settled for bronze at the 2008 Olympics, falling to Swiss duo Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in the semis, and lost in the quarterfinals in 2004. Mike also captured mixed doubles bronze with Lisa Raymond in London.
Bob’s gold medal he took from Mike is in a trophy case, while Mike’s (originally Bob’s) is in a safe. The pair owns 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, but it’s the much smaller (in size) Olympic prize that’s most popular.
“I had, actually, the gold medal in my bag, in my racket bag, for four months, and I was showing it to a million people,” Bob said. “That seems to be the trophy that everyone wants to see when they come over to our house. They usually look past all the Slams, and they go right for that shiny piece of gold.”
