While Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps have been picking up medals, collecting of a different sort has been hugely popular at the Rio Olympics.

Camped outside the Main Press Centre entrance on my journey in each day have been avid pin collectors from around the world, many of whom follow both the summer and winter Games hoping to get their hands on rare items.

The badges, which are mainly produced by sporting bodies and media organisations, have a mixture of designs based predominantly around the Olympic rings, with some very original, and some more mundane.

It has been a tradition that has gone back many Games, and seems to get more and more popular with each edition.

Image: An Olympic pin collector shows off his pin-bling in New York City in April

The fanatics form the basis for trading among athletes, officials and media - who each bring their pins to swap.


"If you could just go to the store and buy this it would be meaningless", Dan Baker tells me, a collector from Missouri, who looks very much set in place for the day at the Olympic Park, barefoot and with his display of pins set out in front of him.

"The only way you can get this, the good pins, is trade with somebody else; it's addictive, but it's also kind of an ice-breaker."

Image: American Timm Jamieson exchanges Olympic pins at the Olympic Park in Rio

The pin-collecting culture is initially lost on me - I have no pins to swap, which I quickly find out means I won't be granted an interview with some of the traders.

Brazilian Rafael da Silva, working with US TV at the Games, says it is new to him too: "Now I kind of understand how it works. It's like a game.

"It's like poker, you look at it and say, ah this pin is good, and it's hard to give up a not-so-good one for a better one, it's just fun."

Image: The quality varies hugely - some look tacky, but many are beautiful

The craze goes further - on many occasions in Rio, and outside the Olympic bubble, one glance at my accreditation in a restaurant or shop has led to me being asked if I have any pins to give them.

Lanyards are decked out in all kinds of pin-bling, from Games dating back years.

The quality varies hugely - some look tacky, but many are beautiful and intricate, making it easier to understand the collecting obsession.

Image: Olympic pin traders gather in the Olympic Park ahead of the 2016 Games

One pin proves extremely difficult to get hold of, though: a Pokemon design created by a Japanese broadcaster that features the iconic Pikachu.

"If you even see one you'd be lucky" says Mr Baker.

"It's probably as elusive as some of the Pokemon Go stuff. Most people don't even wear them anymore because they get mauled."

Image: Creative pin designs and the excitement of swapping gets people talking

Mr Da Silva agrees: "The most valuable one is Pikachu, but you can't find that.

"There are other good ones, like Star Wars, but the Japanese pins are the most valuable, I think."

You get the impression that if you start collecting, stopping would be difficult.

Image: A pin collector displays his badges at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

Creative pin designs and the excitement of swapping gets people talking.

If nothing else, Mr Baker is right, the game is a perfect ice-breaker between cultures at the Olympic Games.