Olympic Medals

Today every athlete dreams of wearing an Olympic gold medal around their neck but did you know that during the ancient Olympic Games there were no medals? At the original Olympic Games dating back to 776 BC, first place finishers received an olive branch to wear on their heads while second and third place finishers left with nothing.

During the first modern Olympics in 1896, athletes who finished first would receive a silver medal, second place a bronze and third place nothing. It wouldn't be until the 1904 St. Louis Games that a gold medal was awarded to the winners, second place a silver and third a bronze.

The 1912 Olympics would be the last time a gold medal was made purely of gold. Since then gold medals are made of sterling silver with a coat of pure gold (roughly 6 grams). Exact requirements for the Summer Games medals is that all gold medals must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter.

Starting in 1928, all Summer Olympic medals featured the same design on the front: a Greek goddess, the Olympic Rings, the Coliseum of ancient Athens, a Greek vase, a horse-drawn chariot, along with the year, number of Olympiad and host city. Each host city is allowed to add their own design with those requirements. The reverse side is each host cities own design.

The Winter Olympic medals have far less criteria and allow for more modern and unique designs. The 2006 Torino Games featured a circular medal with no center while the design for 2010 is no even round.