The tradition of giving medals at the Olympic Games began in 1896 – it was then that the winners received a silver award and a diploma, while the runners-up received a bronze medal, laurel branch, and a diploma. The medals featured Zeus and the designer of the award was Jules Clément Chaplin, a French sculptor and medalist.
Why Zeus? It’s simple, because, as you know, the birthplace of the Olympic Games is Ancient Greece. And according to the main legend (and there are always several, as it is supposed to be), Zeus, the ancient Greek god of the sky, thunder, and lightning, defeated his father Cronus and then ordered to hold the games, which later became known as the Olympic Games.
For each Olympic Games, the design of awards was developed individually. In addition to award medals, commemorative medals were always issued, which were received by the participants of the Games, judges, representatives of official delegations, as well as souvenir medals.
The first medals were convex in shape with a drawing of Zeus and Niki, and depending on the merit, it was allowed to change the central area. At the 2nd Summer Olympics in Paris, the award sets were rectangular medals, the only exception in the annals of Olympic medals. In 1904 in the United States, the medals became round again, retaining their shape to the present day.
But let’s go over everything in order. First a little theoretical background, and then let’s discuss the designs of Olympic medals of different years in more detail.
The Olympic medal is a badge of honor, which is awarded to the winners and medalists of competitions held as part of the Olympic Games under the auspices of the IOC.
The International Olympic Committee sets the following requirements for Olympic medals and the procedure for awarding winners and medalists.
Medals shall be awarded to athletes who have taken the first three places:
- gold – for the first place;
- silver – for the second place;
- bronze – for the third place.
*The regulations of some competitions provide for two third places.
The Design Principles
The countries responsible for the competition are obliged to order the production of the medal according to the pre-approved layout. In this case, the Olympic award can be offered any design, but approved by the International Olympic Committee.
Obligatory medals are made for all sports, with their indication. The drawing can be different. But there are requirements that each country must comply with. This concerns the composition of metal, diameter, and thickness of products.
In the early years of the twentieth century, after the revival of competitions, some medals were made entirely of gold, silver, and bronze. But after a few games and to this day make Olympic medals from precious metals and additional alloys.
For specific Olympic Games the medals depicted the thunderer Zeus, Victory Niki, and St. George, on the rim made inscriptions of the names of the heroes of the host state of the Olympic Games. From 1928 until 2000, Olympic medals always featured the image of Niki with a palm tree branch. Since 2004 summer the picture has changed – in the medals goddess of victory Nike, the idea of the design of a medal belonging to the Greeks, goes to a stadium and brings athletes victory. Since 2008 summer in structure of a medal began to include a stone, it became allocated a special cover, a ribbon, and a certificate.
The main revolution in the design of Olympic medals occurred back in 1972, when there was a special lug for inserting the ribbon, and the medals stopped handing in the hands.
By the way, all medals of the Summer Olympic Games must have a round shape. The only exceptions were “plaquettes” rectangular shapes, which were awarded to the winners, medalists, and participants in the Competition II Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris. Medals of the Winter Olympics are subject to less conservatism.
Medals of the Summer Olympic Games
Since 1928, established a single design of awards for the Summer Olympic Games – “Trionfo”: on the obverse of the goddess of victory Nike with a palm branch in the left hand and laurel wreath in the right, on the reverse – the figure of the Olympian on a chariot on the background of the Colosseum. In the upper right part of the reverse left space for the name of the country and the year of the Olympic Games.
In 1972, the organizers of the Munich Olympics changed the design of the reverse, placing there Castor and Pollux, since then all the organizing committees of subsequent Olympics allowed themselves more freedom on the reverse side of the medal.
The “Trionfo” design was abandoned by 2004: since then, the obverse has featured the goddess Nike against the background of the Panathinaiko stadium.
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japanese organizers used recycled metal to make the medals, with each one cast from alloys derived from used consumer electronics such as cell phones and laptops.
As for the medals for the 2024 Summer Olympics, held in France, they were produced by Chaumet, a jewelry house owned by LVMH, the general fashion sponsor of this year’s Games.
The main detail of the medals’ front sides was a hexagon with the Games’ emblem, made of iron cleaned from brown paint left after several reconstructions of the Eiffel Tower. The back of the medals depicts the Panathinaikos stadium, where the first Olympic Games of modern times were held, and the goddess of victory Nike from Greek mythology.
Medals of the Winter Olympics
If the design of summer awards was strictly regulated, then in the manufacture of medals for the Winter Olympics, the organizers had complete freedom. Thanks to this, the medals of the Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1984 are remembered by many because of their unusual shape – they were square.
From 1992 to 1998, the Winter Olympics had three editions of medals with additional materials. Thus, for example, the 1994 Winter Medals differed in diameter by 78 mm and were made of stalagmite – a Norwegian rock.
The medals presented at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin were of the traditional round shape but with a small twist – a space in the center representing the Italian market square piazza.
And the 2014 Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Awards were among the most expensive in history.
Conclusion
The Olympic Games are a competition not only for athletes but also for designers from all over the world. Every time the host country tries to surprise the whole world. To create a new image, to stand out, to redefine everything that has gone before, and to tell its unique story. And, of course, visual identity is not only the emblem of a particular Olympics and its mascots, but also the Olympic medals, which are the main award for any athlete.
Today we have briefly told you about the basic principles of medal design for both the Winter and Summer Olympics, and, hopefully, created a visual resume of the Olympic Games history in this very important area.
