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When you watch the Olympics, what are you interested in? Maybe it’s the sense of national pride you have when your country wins. The feats of peak athleticism and the thrill extreme sports give you? There is no doubt that many of us pay attention to who wins an event and the medals awarded to top athletes around the globe. You might be curious whether the medals are composed of real gold, silver, and bronze. After all, the worth of gold is at an all-time high right now! The process of making Olympic medals is quite interesting, so let's do a deeper dive into insights into making a medal!
Do you ever notice that Olympians bite their medals in photo shoots? That alludes to an old practice of biting into gold to test its authenticity since real gold is softer than your teeth, allowing you to bite into the gold. However, you’ll be surprised if you try to bite into an Olympic gold medal today. No medals since the 1912 Olympic games have been composed of solid gold. Instead, both the gold and silver medals are composed of mostly silver. The composition of Olympic medals must meet strict requirements with one of them being that gold and silver medals must be composed of at least 92.5% silver. Gold medals must include at least 6 grams of gold, so gold medals are usually gold-plated and composed of 5% gold and 95% silver as opposed to a higher percentage gold alloy. Silver medals are usually 100% silver and bronze medals are a copper and zinc alloy using silver as a polish.
To reach sustainability initiatives, Olympic committees are reusing scrap metals for the production of all gold, silver, and bronze medals. The Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics reused copper and gold parts from discarded electronics. Silver was sourced from broken mirrors and X-ray plates. The ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic medals will contain scrap metal from the refurbishment of the Eiffel Tower! The scrap iron will be included as centrepiece decorations in the middle of the medal so every winning athlete can take a piece of Paris home with them after the games.
The design and casting of Olympic medals are a big deal to the nation hosting the Olympics, so every team involved in the process are chosen from the best of the best. The production of the medals is usually handled by the country’s national mint and the planning committee invites the best artists in the country to design the medals in a judged competition. For example, in the 2010 Vancouver Games held in Canada, the medals were designed by Omer Arbel and Corinne Hunt, with the final designs minted by the Royal Canadian Mint.
The design of the Summer Olympic Games medals was standardized after the 1928 Olympics to include the goddess of victory and the Olympic emblem on the medal. The medals from the Winter Olympics are not as standardized as the Summer Olympics, and there you’ll find unique designs on both the obverse and reverse of the medal instead of the standardized Goddess of Victory Nike on the obverse.
The process of medal production begins with drafting the designs featured. Artists will produce digital models and plan out the intricate details for the mould of the metal. Once the designs have been settled and chosen, the digital model will be interpreted into a clay model with the clay model being the template used to create the die used to cast the molten metal. Metals are melted down using industrial-sized furnaces and poured into the die to cast the medals. Finally, the medals are inspected for imperfections, and either corrected or melted down to be recast if the blemishes are too severe. The metals are treated in an acid solution to prevent stains and blemishes on the surface of the medal, polishing it to a shiny finish. In the case of the gold medals, there is one more step. After they are separated from the silver metals, they are then treated and electroplated to add a layer of gold plating to differentiate gold from silver medals.
Although Gold medals are not pure gold, they still represent the shining achievement of athletes being the pride of their country. The composition of these medals doesn't take away from their achievements and that is further solidified by Olympic medals selling for more than their base cost in materials after they are awarded!
When you watch the Olympics, what are you interested in? Maybe it’s the sense of national pride you have when your country wins. The feats of peak athleticism and the thrill extreme sports give you? There is no doubt that many of us pay attention to who wins an event and the medals awarded to top athletes around the globe. You might be curious whether the medals are composed of real gold, silver, and bronze. After all, the worth of gold is at an all-time high right now! The process of making Olympic medals is quite interesting, so let's do a deeper dive into insights into making a medal!
Do you ever notice that Olympians bite their medals in photo shoots? That alludes to an old practice of biting into gold to test its authenticity since real gold is softer than your teeth, allowing you to bite into the gold. However, you’ll be surprised if you try to bite into an Olympic gold medal today. No medals since the 1912 Olympic games have been composed of solid gold. Instead, both the gold and silver medals are composed of mostly silver. The composition of Olympic medals must meet strict requirements with one of them being that gold and silver medals must be composed of at least 92.5% silver. Gold medals must include at least 6 grams of gold, so gold medals are usually gold-plated and composed of 5% gold and 95% silver as opposed to a higher percentage gold alloy. Silver medals are usually 100% silver and bronze medals are a copper and zinc alloy using silver as a polish.
To reach sustainability initiatives, Olympic committees are reusing scrap metals for the production of all gold, silver, and bronze medals. The Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics reused copper and gold parts from discarded electronics. Silver was sourced from broken mirrors and X-ray plates. The ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic medals will contain scrap metal from the refurbishment of the Eiffel Tower! The scrap iron will be included as centrepiece decorations in the middle of the medal so every winning athlete can take a piece of Paris home with them after the games.
The design and casting of Olympic medals are a big deal to the nation hosting the Olympics, so every team involved in the process are chosen from the best of the best. The production of the medals is usually handled by the country’s national mint and the planning committee invites the best artists in the country to design the medals in a judged competition. For example, in the 2010 Vancouver Games held in Canada, the medals were designed by Omer Arbel and Corinne Hunt, with the final designs minted by the Royal Canadian Mint.
The design of the Summer Olympic Games medals was standardized after the 1928 Olympics to include the goddess of victory and the Olympic emblem on the medal. The medals from the Winter Olympics are not as standardized as the Summer Olympics, and there you’ll find unique designs on both the obverse and reverse of the medal instead of the standardized Goddess of Victory Nike on the obverse.
The process of medal production begins with drafting the designs featured. Artists will produce digital models and plan out the intricate details for the mould of the metal. Once the designs have been settled and chosen, the digital model will be interpreted into a clay model with the clay model being the template used to create the die used to cast the molten metal. Metals are melted down using industrial-sized furnaces and poured into the die to cast the medals. Finally, the medals are inspected for imperfections, and either corrected or melted down to be recast if the blemishes are too severe. The metals are treated in an acid solution to prevent stains and blemishes on the surface of the medal, polishing it to a shiny finish. In the case of the gold medals, there is one more step. After they are separated from the silver metals, they are then treated and electroplated to add a layer of gold plating to differentiate gold from silver medals.
Although Gold medals are not pure gold, they still represent the shining achievement of athletes being the pride of their country. The composition of these medals doesn't take away from their achievements and that is further solidified by Olympic medals selling for more than their base cost in materials after they are awarded!
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