Back in the day – right smart back in the day – Olympian title-holder were crowned with wreaths of European olive tree folio following their triumph . tight - forward to the forward-looking game , and the winners get medal for their efforts . At thefirst Olympic Games in Athensin 1896 , top placers received silver grey medallion since , at the meter , silver was coveted more thangold . Second position competitors receive Cu decoration .
atomic number 79 medals were first introduced in 1904 at the St. Louis Games , although it was n’t until London host in 1908 that the medals were award in the order so familiar today . Even so , the notable medal ceremonial ordinarily involved pinning on the prize , rather than plunking it around victor ' neck opening . At the 1960 Rome Games , the medals were affixed to chains ; following that , ribbons were typically the touchstone .
Not Your Typical Winner Takes Gold
Whether beribboned , chained or pin , there ’s never been a determined standard of what an Olympian medallion should look like . Some design requirements have survive , honest , but where composition is concerned , there has been a band of mutation over the old age , plus differences in heft , size , shape or even material . In 1896 , first - position athletes received laurel wreath that were not only silver , but 48 millimeters in diameter , 3.8 millimeters thickset and weighed in at 47 grams [ source : Olympics.org ] . In Paris four class afterward , the medals were rectangular , 59 millimeter by 41 millimeters and librate 53 grams . The next games , held in St. Louis , scaled matter back a bit with a circular cooky cutter model that attain the scales at a mere 21 grams . Apart from those 1900 Paris Games – anoddity in Olympic historyfor many reasons – all athletes of the Summer Olympics have invite circular medals . The Winter Games have usually featured circular ribbon , too , although there have been some exceptions [ origin : Olympics.org ] .
When it come to what textile the medals are made out of , that ’s been a bit fluid as well . The original ribbon awarded at the Athens Games of 1896 were , as mentioned , silver and copper . Over the intervening years , gold , flatware and bronze became the standard , and , in fact , between 1928 and 1968 , medals were close-fitting to identical apart from the host city and year of the games . During the 1972 Munich Games – overshadowed by the slaying of 11 Israeli athletes – the superposable medal tradition was broken with a new design on one side . Since then , they ’ve been a wide-ranging bunch : In the 2008 Beijing Games , for example , the medal admit nag , a unique , culturally pregnant divergence from the standard .
The medals of the Winter Games have traditionally been made of aureate silver ( silver coated with gold ) for the top swag , followed by flatware and bronze for second and third place . Since the Albertville Games of 1992 , however , Olympian organizer have been merge things up a little . success that year received medals adorned with quartz . In Lillehammer , four years later , all three medals include portions of sparagmite – a type of granite . Nagano sport medals with lacquer . In 2002 , Salt Lake City pass back to the stock begild - silver formula for their top champs . Since then , most winter games have followed cause [ origin : IOC ] .
In terms of the specific metals that wind up in the cocktail , current amber medal must consist of at least 92.5 per centum silver and 6 grams of gold coating , per International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) regularization . The rest is typically copper . ash grey ribbon these days often also have a number of copper in them , and bronze ribbon also check copper , sometimes alloy with zinc [ source : The Economist ] .
As far as real toll goes , the golden Olympic medals at the 2010 Vancouver Games – the heaviest on record so far – cost about $ 500 a pop at the clip . That was vastly higher than the 2002 Salt Lake City set , where the gold medals cost about $ 150 each , again based on the cost at the time . Most of that difference of opinion , however , can be chalked up to therising prices of cute metals , not vast version in composition and sizing . Gold medals at the London 2012 game will be about $ 700 , after tip the scales at 400 grams [ sources : The Economist , CNBC ] .
legion urban center also have to consider the order size into their expenditures – with Summer Games often have more competitors and medalist . At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games , only about 1,000 medal were commission , oppose to Beijing ’s approximately 6,000 medals needed two geezerhood in the first place . But since Beijing ’s laurel wreath had been significantly lighter ( about 150 gm versus 500 grams ) , the city ’s total order add up to $ 1,091,000 – still less than Vancouver ’s bill of $ 1,147,000 . Quite the deviation when you factor in the 5,000 medal disagreement [ seed : CNBC ] .
Besides their heft , Vancouver ’s medals are noteworthy for one other feature of speech : The prizes contained belittled fortune ofe - waste matter . A bantam fraction , to be sure , but personal organiser were still majestic of their donation to promoting environmentalism .
I make out write this article because I had never before distrust how much the decoration of the games have varied over the year . How wrong I was ! But I do n’t think not bonk this was totally my fracture . As I recall , when watching the Olympics , you generally do n’t get an up - close look at the medals . But they truly are intricate and beautiful . Also , I want one now . Too bad I ’m fairly lousy at sports …
