Olympic Games Medal Trivia
Here's some trivia about the medals presented at the Summer Olympic Games
The only time rectangular medals were awarded was at the 1900 Olympic Games - At the Ancient Olympics, no medals were ever awarded. The first-place winner was given an Olive Wreath to wear on their head, made from leaves cut from the sacred tree at Olympia.
- At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze to the second place getters.
- In 1900, most winners received cups or trophies instead of medals, and the medals that were awarded were rectangular.
- At the 1904 Games in St. Louis, gold replaced silver as the medal awarded for first place. This was the start of the tradition of presenting gold, silver and bronze medals to the Olympic Games top three place-getters.
- In 1904, when the Gold Medal for first place was first introduced, it was made of pure gold. It wasn't until 1912 that the medals stopped being made of pure gold due to shortages as a consequence of war. Nowadays, the gold medals are mostly made of sterling silver, with at least 6 grams of gold, mainly in the plating. That’s about 1.34% gold.
- Two Japanese pole vaulters tied for second place at the 1936 men's pole vault event, however, they refused to participate in a tiebreaker. Instead, they cut their medals in half and they fused them together so they were half silver, half bronze.
- The bronze used in the third place medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was sourced from Australian 1 and 2 cent coins that were no longer in circulation.
- The copper for the 2004 Athens Olympics medals came from Cyprus. It was transported to Greece on a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek merchant ship 'Kyrenia" which sank off the coast over 2000 years ago.
- The medals for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were inlaid with a jade disk, inspired by an ancient Chinese piece called "Bi". Jade has an important place in Chinese culture as it represents beauty and excellence in all things.
- At the Rio 2016 Olympics, for the first time, the medals were made slightly thicker at their central point compared to the edges.
- The medals for the Tokyo Olympic Games were made from recycled metal taken from old mobile phones and small household appliances donated by people across Japan.
- The main feature of the 2024 Paris medals was a six-sided metal medallion set in the center like a precious stone, made from an original piece of the Eiffel Tower.
- The piece of the Eiffel tower used in the medal designs in 2024 was made of iron, the only known instance of iron being included in an Olympic Games medal.
Related Pages
- Summer Olympic Medal Designs — examples of the medals from each Olympiad.
- (Summer) Olympic Medal Tallies — how many medals have countries and athletes won?
- Winter Olympics Medal Designs — all about the Winter Olympics medal designs and composition.
- Olympic Medal History
- Australia's medal tally for each Olympic Games
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