The Olympics is one of the most anticipated sporting events in the world. Many fans are looking forward to the opening ceremony and further competitions. And with every Games, many are asking questions about how much the Olympic gold medal weighs and what metal it is made of. For example, medals in Sochi were probably the largest in the history of the Olympic Games. Let's try to figure out how and why the parameters of the Olympic awards are changing.
From the history
Most athletes who have won many awards unanimously assure that the Olympic medal is the most valuable for them. It is no coincidence that many of them miss world competitions in order to better prepare for this important stage in their lives. The first "modern" Games were held in 1896, and it was then that the first medals were developed. Give them for the first three prizes. It is noteworthy that during the Games in Antiquity there were no medals as such. They appeared only in the modern history of the Olympic movement. So, at the first Olympiad , the silver and the 925th test were intended for the winner and the runner-up, and the medal covered with six grams of gold was put in third place. Find out how much weighs gold olympic the medal of that time is not possible, it is only known that in diameter it reached 60 mm, and its thickness was 3 mm.
During the first Games (1896, Greece), 43 sets of awards were awarded to the winners. On one side of each coin, Zeus was depicted holding the globe with the goddess Nika standing on it. On the back was the Acropolis with an inscription in Greek: "International Olympic Games." The design idea belonged to the artist Jules Chaplin. Weight gold Olympic the medal was only 47 grams.
How the design has changed
Gradually, the appearance of the medals (size, diameter, design, shape) begins to change. For example, in 1900, rectangular awards were presented (they weighed 53 grams) with the image of the goddess Nika in a laurel wreath on one side and an athlete standing on a pedestal on the other. At the third Games, the Olympic medals were embossed, while for the first time chains of bronze were specially made for them. Almost 100 years passed, and in 1998, awards began to be created with an extra eyelet, into which it was convenient to stick the tape. Subsequently, this solution began to be used constantly.
Structure
However, not only the design, but also the composition
Olympic
gold
medals were constantly changing, and not only gold. For example, at the Games in London, the
bronze award was an alloy of copper (97%), zinc (2.5%) and tin (0.5%). Silver was 92.5% silver, and the remaining 7.5% was copper. Strange as it may seem, the gold medal was also cast from silver (92.5%) and copper (6.16%), but there was nothing gold at all - about 1%. That is, it turns out that there is no special difference between them, in any case, with regard to the composition. Easy to calculate now how much
is worth
olympic
gold
medal: for a bronze award in the market one would have to pay a maximum of 150 rubles, for silver a little more than 10,000 rubles, and gold would cost about 20,500 rubles. However, is it really a matter of price?
However, it cannot be said that there was no pure gold medal in the history of the Games. In 1908, the British at their Olympics decided to show the bounty of the soul and made awards from pure gold of the 583rd test. True, they were more like jubilee coins than medals. Accordingly, you can roughly imagine how much weighs gold olympic medal - about 21 grams.
The form
Not without experiments, and in terms of the form of awards. Of course, most of the medals are still round, but oval and rectangular variations are also found. For example, at the Olympics in Paris, the so-called posters were presented - rectangular awards, on which there was not a single inscription. Moreover, the Games were dedicated to the exhibition, which was held in Paris.
In the arms or on the neck?
Another noteworthy fact is that until 1960 Olympic medals were awarded directly to the hands, that is, they were not hung around the neck. And the first who decided to rectify this situation were Italians - they created a chain of bronze in the form of olive branches. However, during the ceremony, the girls stood with scissors - suddenly the athlete would not like that they want to hang a medal on his neck, and not give it to his hands. However, the innovation has taken root, and now all the awards are hung on the neck, for which they are equipped with a chain or ribbon
Besides the question "how much does it weigh gold olympic a medal ", many are also interested in the number of awards that are awarded at competitions. So, researchers say that their record number was awarded at the Sochi Olympics - about 1300 pieces. This expansion is associated with the fact that the Games program has also become wider. Let's say , at the Games in Vancouver there were 86 sets of medals, and in Sochi - already 98. And at the first Winter Games in Chamonix there were only 16 sets of awards (for 9 sports).
Instead of a medal, a house
But in antiquity did not think about how much is worth olympic gold medal. The ancient Greeks and Romans simply did not know about their existence, and houses, lands, bags of gold coins acted as awards. The first Olympic winner, Hercules, received an olive branch as a reward, and nothing offended. It is also important that in ancient times only the winner was awarded. Much later, in 1984, the question was raised about increasing the number of prizes, and now the medals are awarded to three winners.
Olympic medal records
However, records were set not only by athletes, but also by the creators of awards. For example, the heaviest medals were awarded in Vancouver - their weight was 576 grams, in Salt Lake City the awards weighed 567 grams. But the largest in size were Turin medals, more like CDs. The smallest, as we have already said, were medals awarded to athletes in 1908 in London.
Awarding in Sochi: features
The process of producing awards for such large-scale events is rather complicated, it is not by chance that each Olympic gold medal (the photo shows how different the awards were in different years) is individual and special. For example, the samples that were produced for the Games in Sochi passed a huge number of checks and tests. Each instance was evaluated not only visually, but also in terms of quality. For example, it turned out that the Sochi medal is able to withstand any incident, whether it is bathing in champagne or checking “for a tooth”.
Sochi Olympic gold medal is made of silver of the highest standard (for each award it took 525 grams of metal) and six grams of gold. By the way, such requirements are made by the IOC. But the medals of silver and bronze were completely made of appropriate materials. It is also noteworthy that the awards for the Olympics and Paralympics differ in weight, and in design, and in size. In addition, elements of a special Braille alphabet are applied to them , so that champions with low vision could read the inscriptions.
Many athletes keep Olympic medals as the main achievement of their lives. But among them there are those who chose to part with the coveted reward. For example, in 2010, sprinter Tommy Smith put up his medal for sale, however, this was done in order to combat racism in the United States. A swimmer from Poland Otilia Jedrzejcak sold her medal to help children with leukemia.